Troy Jollimore

Want
August 21, 2021 Jollimore Troy

WANT

 

How do I want you? Let me count the ways.
I want you on demand. I want you streaming.
I want you half-asleep and in the taxi dreaming,
slouched and drifting in the back seat
in the June Manhattan haze.
 
I want you streaming. I want you on demand.
I want you in the back seats of a hundred thousand taxis.
I want you on every platform my device can access.
I want you arched and shivering
at the snap of my command.
 
I want you opening nationwide this week. I want you dreaming.
I hope you catch my meaning, dear. I want you on demand.
I want you in the taxi’s headlights beaming bright. I want you
scheduled for inclusion
in my Pay Per Minute Plan.
 
I want you in the cab we hailed at twilight’s last gleaming.
I want you on demand. So let us count the ways
I want you to want me to want you to want that I desire you.
I want you to understand
I could go on like this for days.

Troy Jollimore’s books of poetry are Syllabus of Errors, At Lake Scugog, and Tom Thomson in Purgatory, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry in 2006.