by Scout Faller
After Frank O’Hara’s “Having a Coke with You”
Having fish and chips at lovely’s
Having a leather jacket you’re in a crinkly top
Having a past is not permissible
That’s why tonight i’m 90s ethan hawke
Having a diet coke explaining the past to my friend
Our past involves all the same people but in different accounts
Maybe they treated me differently cause i’m ethan hawke:
A composite of white male longing
You think this hawke stuff is toxic, and say
A culture of individualism leads to paranoia
Worrying about being canceled is an indulgence
We raise our drinks to the angelic choir of haters
Having a coked-up convo I miss that
You can go back you can never return, is that what they say
Snapped from the gates of dysfunctional heaven
At the lesbian bar we will not get a table
From where we stand it looks like straight people in vests
These days I leave early to go write abt what a great time I had
And you are the love of my life and have no spatial awareness
You piss the whole street off
Standing everywhere like a tree without its glasses
Your top still crinkling
It’s perfection
Scout (they/them) has poetry published in HAD, Hot Pink Mag, and Ursus Americanus press, with poems forthcoming in dream boy book club and lowly dirt children. They live in San Francisco with their girlfriend and their cat. They’re on instagram @boredgeoisie__. You can find more of their work at scoutfaller.com/poems.