The Cover Story for Life by Jennifer Rudsit

Saturday night and I'm sitting
in the bookstore reading
the sexual astrologer's guide to life.
I want a cigarette,
but I don't smoke.
Libras are unable to commit
monogamy, while Sagittarius drives
the wilder side of kinky sex
and is never satiated.
I find that we are a glorious pairing
though I would never use the word
glorious. It is the astrologer's term
for which he seems excited
about the prospect of a Libra mating
with a Sagittarius. I think of your voice
on my answering machine at home
and slip my shoes off,
feel the guilty pleasure of bare feet
in public places, of reading sexual astrology
instead of Homer or Kerouac or Woolf.
But I think if Virginia were here
she would be hovering
just over my left shoulder
asking me to turn to the page.

BIO: Jennifer Rudsit received her undergraduate degree from Purdue University and her Masters in Creative Writing from Northern Michigan University. She is currently a creative writing teacher in a high school in Northborough, MA. Her poems have appeared in: North Coast Review, White Pelican Review, 360 Degrees, Alembic, Anthology, Sierra Nevada Review, Nanny Fanny, Small Brushes, Hard Row to Hoe, Limestone, Into the Teeth of the Wind, The Advocate, The English Journal, Harbor Islands Review, Free Fall, Omnific, Thought Magazine, Zillah, Steam Ticket, Saranac Review, Roux Magazine, Word Wrights and The Haight Ashbury Journal. EMAIL: comments@moondance.org