For your enjoyment: “Capp Street Incident” by Jon Boilard and a writing exercise.
Capp Street Incident
by Jon Boilard
(Caution, adult subject matter)
She stands under the 101 overpass on Capp Street. When I pull up she sticks her head through the window, parting my legs with her hand. I ask her how much. She tells me and then gets in. We pull around the corner to a spot she likes. She looks vaguely familiar but I don’t say anything. She puts the condom on me with her mouth. After a few minutes she says, Baby, you got to hurry; I got to get back out there on the stroll. I tell her not to worry about finishing me. She is relieved. She cleans her mess and puts everything–the money, the limp rubber, the soiled tissues–in her little black purse. Then I remember. Her name is Del and I recognize her from high school. We had Spanish together. She had a crush on me and I never gave her the time of day. When I mention this she laughs and says, Boy the tables are turned now. I laugh, too, and then she gets out. She says, Baby you shouldn’t drive in that condition. I smile and ease away from the curb. I smell her from ten blocks away. Cigarettes and sweat and dirty feet. Then I get sick some more in the Office Depot parking lot. With an old newspaper I clean what ends up on me. I try to picture the girl she used to be and I cannot. It is difficult enough to remember what I was like back then.
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“Capp Street Incident” was originally published in the Summer-Fall 2006 issue of Fugue, literary magazine from the University of Idaho. The prose poem/flash fiction is very resonant. Everyone imagines what people they once knew are doing now, at least once in awhile. And the juxtaposition of the girl having a crush on him, and him paying her for sex is terribly ironic. Also, it’s about sex,in a way at least, but it never gets gross or very graphic, which is nice. I’ve read my share of bad, bad poetry sex while working on different literary journals, and this was a nice, understated example. And the end feels so right for the situation… so human.
Now try a ‘reminiscent’ poem of your own with a dramatic twist. Like in “Capp Street Incident” see someone that seems familiar, realize where you know them from (at least eight years before) and remember a little anecdote between the narrator and character. Have the anecdote be ironic considering the present, somewhat drastic situation (be it during a robbery, a traffic accident, jail, whatever).