Stephen C. Potter

Portrait, Age Eighteen

A naked
boy, conscious of other boys
is a body
bold with dreaming
it can slip off desire-

young, so young
stepping from
the showers, steam
slips off shoulders
a sheet
or bridal veil

as the night city un-
furls its neon fabrics

swathing men
in pink and blue

cruising where a boy
stands, peering in windows

as grates endlessly unroll
their finest bolts.