poem six

how many how many how many

how heavy how long how often

it seems that quantifiable data

the sexual statisticians’ obsession

gains greater credence these days

than other more interesting

but less observable details

weight, age, length and span

unmeasured goes the heart

some things unnumbered

may still engender thought

racking up one hundred different partners

in a series of damp unsatisfying squibs

feeble penetration or the invention of it

before a disposable ejaculate

is perhaps more definable

than our pleasures and tastes

and the torque of two opposing bodies

compassion is nothing to the accountants of desire