Owen McLeod

Time Warp

Ninth grade, back of the school van, drinking
strawberry Boone’s Farm from the bottle with Regan
on our way to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show,
my first time seeing it, first time drunk, a low-down
cheap little punk majoring in drama at the Alabama
School of Fine Arts, houselights low, Regan shoving
a slice of toast in my pocket to toss at the appointed
moment, until then I hadn’t known about audience
participation, afterwards the two of us writhing
on the floor of a music practice room, not sure
what to do, Regan clutching my right hand, planting it
on her left breast, me kneading it instinctively, clumsily,
Regan moaning, my tongue in her mouth, her crumbs
in my pocket, the baby grand blackness above us.

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Owen McLeod is author of the poetry collections Before After (Saturnalia Books, 2023) and Dream Kitchen (University of North Texas Press, 2019), winner of the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry. His work appears in Copper Nickel, Missouri Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, The Southern Review and many other places. He's a philosophy professor at Lafayette College in Easton, PA.