issue117bestfriend

                                   ZYGOTE IN MY COFFEE.COM

***BIO*** Alex Galper: Check out more of his work at http://www.nyqpoets.net/poet/alexgalper

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*Best Friend

by Alex Galper

My close friend
a female poet-translator
does not reciprocate my feelings.
She says that her need
of me is only for the purposes of
her own artistic inner growth.
We are polishing up
an English translation of
a poem of mine
at one of New York's best pick up bars.
"There is a whole box of them there,"
she says as she comes back
from the restroom
with a purse full of condoms,
"I picked up like a hundred,
but didn't forget about my best friend either,"
and gently pinching my cheek,
extends a handful to me.

May 2009

117

*(Translated from Russian by Misha Delibash)