Unbearables

THE BIG S

Hal Sirowitz

Sex is for other people,
mother said, those

with veins bulging out
of their neck, pulsing. If

I were you, I wouldn’t
give sex a second glance.

It’s supposed to be confined
to married people, but that’s

not what you watch on TV
when I’m not home, everybody

seems to do it, except married people.
Treat it like a piece of bird curd

you found on the car. Don’t even
bother to wipe it off. Just wait

for it to fall off due to motion.

Hakim Bey once called Hal Sirowitz the most bearable of the Unbearables. He's the author of four books of poetry—Mother Said, My Therapist Said (Crown/Random House), Father Said, and Before, During & After (Soft Skull)—with a fifth one forthcoming from Backwaters Press in Nebraska. Ron Kolm, the undeclared guiding light of the Unbearables, was the first one to publish him in book form.