HOW HE LIVED AND HOW HE LOVED

He resided in the library

when he wasn’t roaming

a supermarket parking lot,

pushing carts back to the store—

the only job he ever had.

He never shaved, cut his hair,

or replaced missing teeth.

He refused to ware a belt—

used a rope around his waist.

He never touched another

human being—lived alone

in a furnished room.

A cadaver, only an incantation

of abracadabra could awaken

his sleeping soul.

But when he recited

the erotic narration

of Nora Barnacle’s soliloquy

in James Joyce’s Ulysses—

it was almost like a fervent prayer,

written on a full-length mirror

in Ruby Woo red lip stick.