Two poems that appeared in Chiron Review, Issue #86, Spring 2009



taxonomy

speculation runs rampant.
is THIS movie star gay? is THAT movie star gay?
the truth is, ALL artists are suspect.
actors, poets, short-story writers, novelists.
painters. sculptors. potters. chefs.
builders of installations.
i'm not sure whether MORE artists tend
to be gay than members of the regular population,
but, my guess is that it's likely to be so.
and who's an artist anyway? anyone
who calls himself or herself an
artist is an artist. now, as to
whether he or she is a GOOD artist,
or a BAD artist, or an
artist who's somewhere in between, well,
LOTS of people get to apply those adjectives,
and they seem to ABSOLUTELY RELISH doing so.
(in fact, you, dear reader, probably kinda
relish it yourself, now don'tcha?)
but, yeah, speculation really
does run rampant about movie stars,
doesn't it?  is HE gay? is SHE a lesbian?
isn't he Bi? people just seem
endlessly fascinated by stuff like
that, don't they?
for me, it's the most fun
to speculate about the really outrageously
good-looking male movie stars.
the ones who look so great my
eyes nearly pop out and my ears kinda
want to bleed when he appears half-naked
on screen. oh it's certainly fun
to imagine him all the way naked, and
coupling with
a naked male friend possessing equal or
perhaps (if possible) even more
lovely and sexy physical attributes.
of course, if he's a REALLY GOOD
actor, if the movies he's in
are ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT, then,
well, i'm putty, lost, adrift,
awhirl in daydream ville:
gay, hot-looking, talented,
brilliant, making good art.
situations like that, if my mind
were a pony express rider,
i'd already be there,
the mail would already be
delivered, and everybody
who was expecting to hear
from somebody would've heard.
they'd be standing around
in their chaps, kinda teary
eyed and happy, jaws bristly,
fingernails rough and dirty.

--Carl Miller Daniels (This poem first appeared in Chiron Review, Issue #86, Spring 2009.)



flavor

oh yes, it is indeed possible that Zac Efron is the
sexiest most handsome young man on the planet.
yes, it is indeed possible that every young gay boy,
that every gay teenage boy,
that every gay young man, that every gay 30-something
man, that every gay middle-age man, and that 
every gay old man
on the planet
who has ever seen even one photograph of Zac Efron or
who has seen Zac Efron act in even one movie
entertains the thought of gently licking
Zac Efron's balls.
and yes,
it is indeed possible that ANYbody on the planet
with any sense knows that
Zac Efron, yes, KNOWS
that Zac Efron is almost excruciatingly attractive,
knows
that Zac Efron is handsome beyond almost
all standard measures of handsomeness,
knows that Zac Efron is
sexy way beyond almost all measures of sexiness.
gay males, straight females, and no doubt
bi males and bi females, too, think
about Zac Efron in terms that are sexual.
some straight males, too, yes males
who know that they are heterosexual, perhaps
nonetheless find themselves thinking
about Zac Efron in terms that are
frankly, sexual. in fact, some heterosexual
males are no doubt disturbed to wake
up in the middle of the night
fresh from a dream involving an imagined Zac Efron
movie and a Zac Efron scene
is which there is full frontal nudity of
a Zac Efron kind.
Most disturbing of all, to these kind
of men, is that whenever they spell
his name, they always spell it
right.

--Carl Miller Daniels (This poem first appeared in Chiron Review, Issue 86, Spring 2009. It also appears in my book Be Kind to Strangers, published by BareBackPress in 2015.)