July Night, Revere Beach, Starless and Bible-Black
Rusty Barnes

Poised on the brink of Revere Beach Boulevard,
using a telescope, Robert takes the vantage point,

scans the horizon for a gender-fluid Quaker
near the pavilion by Kelly’s Roast Beef, who,

in his finite wisdom has conquered the infinite
stars in his eyes with a sniffet of cocaine (some

Quaker!) and the props from a beach production
of Romeo and Juliet set in the 1960s of Annette

Funicello, all bleached-blonde Capulets with a streak
of lean plus a balcony and the hard-eyed Montague

family. The Quaker, named Liam, can only sit
and wonder as he gums around his fried clams

not knowing he’s under the telescope for Robert,
who wants only to find true love eating a clam

in the inexhaustible sea of tanned and lean men,
who wants only to supernova into the night sky

in a chiaroscuro of light and anticipatory foment,
the one true love of a man who has known none.

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