Breathless

            (for Jean Seberg)

If you love a girl just maybe
you shouldn’t steal a car

for her. It’s bad manners &
just what am I supposed to do with this?

Like maybe I will take it for a spin
while I slick on some lipstick,

plotting my next move
like a femme fatale,

inscrutable in fishnet
stockings or some various

casting-call bullshit. Oh,
isn’t this poetic. Here’s me,

tracing my lips
over your corpse, pretending

I don’t know you just called me
a bitch in your own language.

Still, I like the compliment,
turning it in my hands

like your scribbled manifestos
that I should have thrown away.

I never told you that. Maybe
there’s a lot those movies do not tell you

about girls like me. Or just maybe
you should have been a better car thief.