(Week Seven) Improvisation #4 of Form

of Claudia Emerson's "What They Are Missing"

The local boys are, of course, forbidden.
This leaves only the rare visiting

father, awkward brother, the headmaster,
the boy who bushhogs the pasture,

or the chaplain in his telling collar---starched
tooth at the throat----to remind them.


My Improv':

The good girls are, of course, forbidden.
This leaves only the mistakes, one-night

stands with someone's daughter and she
probably has a boyfriend lying somewhere

in the next room or downstairs passed out
on the couch with his letterman's jacket

wrapped like a blanket around his shoulders.
But the drunk girls were always invited to

parties. They were popular--even though the boys
called them sluts--always collective--during the week.

They were boys. Aroused by the way s forced their mouths
to open and close. S is always such a sexy sound.

But high school hates sexy and the good girls are forbidden.