Nancy Depper

Nancy Depper is the author of four chapbooks including "Mouthing" and

"Bodies of Work" (Manic D Press). Her work has been published in many

literary journals in the US and UK and in 1999 she was nominated for a

Pushcart Prize. She can be reached at ndepper@earthlink.net.

Sex with Albert Einstein

He moves slowly, old

as he is, and German.

This is not wasted time, though he

could be groping with theories

of unity

but for now, gravity is

separate from us.

There is no light,

we are blind, the unused power of

our eyes ringing like black bells.

I said: "I don't want to be alone."

When his eyes are open, they ask

"Are you less alone

when you can see me here?"

Unify.

We are light, almost weightless:

the aether he proved didn't exist.

But for a time,

we believed in it.

He sent the Nobel money to

his wife. She deserved it:

he was not kind to her. She said:

"I am starved for love

and wicked science is the enemy."

I know, my Albert is

with me when he is with me,

and entirely absent otherwise.

Love enters through the mouth.

I will love him and starve

as well.

Some men are married to space.

Some men are married to time.

Unify.

Love is a roll of the dice.

It does not cure the need for science

any more than science cures the need for love.

SSI

I learned

to get by on luck

and spaghetti

to hide the earthquake

of my revulsion

at how much I

need their money;

I rent my life

from these nice ladies

at windows "C" and "E",

I already knew

how to lie.

I learned gratitude

for they have

relieved me of

the burden of possessions,

my eyes are too big

for my bookshelf anyway.

I learned to pretend

that money in the

mail is sexy, to try

to relax while knowing

that no check equals

Apocalypse Next Month,

to relax at their

surprise inquisitions

that dot my life like

morse code, just to

frisk me for any

extra nickels I didn't

report to them.

You want to know fear

see the window ladies

when they get mean,

their faces dry

and whithered as with

a weeks sunshine;

they hold my cigarette money

in the balance.

Truth is, I am the infant

and they are the tit

I suck when they let me

and I have not yet

grown the teeth

with which

to bite.

Nancy Depper