married couple at the movies 1987

sitting in the dark
munching on oil slick
fake buttered popcorn
and sipping on iced
carbonated liquid sugar
the ex and me rubbing
elbows as the movie
lights up the screen
Michael Douglas is the guy
who has it all, pretty and sensible
wife with a cute kid thrown in
for good measure
but one night he lets the little
brain zippered up in his pants
take over and next thing you know
he’s doing the slam-bam-thank-you-ma’am
with a sultry but slightly wild-eyed
Glenn Close and this is when it starts
the rest of the movie she’s poking me
in the ribs whispering in my ear
“see! that’s what he gets!
that no good cheating peckerhead!”
i got the message loud and clear
as i stuffed my mouth with my bucket
of artery clogging popcorn
accepting the fact there
would be no nookie tonight

Richard Vargas received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico, 2010. He edited/published five issues of The Tequila Review, 1978-1980, and twelve issues of The Mas Tequila Review from 2010-2015. Published collections: McLife, 2005; American Jesus, 2009; Guernica, revisited, 2014. A fourth book to be published summer 2022. He currently resides in Wisconsin, near the lake where Otis Redding’s plane crashed.