I like my men tall, angular and on the spectrum.

I want a guy who knows every intimate detail of my
life and nothing about the movements of my heart,
who has transformed rudeness into art form, whose
intellect induces vertigo.

Let me have an obdurate specimen who wears
long, loose coats and strange headgear; who has
a brother named Mycroft and a healthy fear
of the terrifying anaesthesia of boredom,

a guy who has only one friend — one
more than he deserves — and has
yet to encounter arc, release
and declension as physical
phenomena.

Wouldn’t I love to prove beyond
a reasonable or maniacal doubt
his body’s insistent logic, take him
to the end of the line and make him
scream nonsense syllables
at the top of his lungs?

CATHERINE WALD’s poems have appeared in American Journal of Nursing, Buddhist Poetry Journal, Chronogram, Classical Poets, Exit 13, Friends Journal, Jewish Literary Journal, New Verse News, The 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly, The Lyric, The New Poet, and Westchester Review. She is the author of the poetry chapbook Distant, burned-out stars (Finishing Line Press, 2001) and The Resilient Writer: Tales of Rejection and Triumph from 23 Top Authors (Persea, 2005).