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FOUR WAY REVIEW

Josh Tvrdy (he/him) is a writer from Tucson, Arizona. Winner of a 2021 Pushcart Prize, he recently graduated with an MFA in Poetry from North Carolina State University, where he received the 2019 Academy of American Poets Prize. He won Gulf Coast's 2018 Prize in Poetry, and his work can be found (or is soon to be found) in The Georgia Review, The Indiana Review, Gulf Coast, The Adroit Journal, The Los Angeles Review and elsewhere. Photo Credit: Melanie Tafejian

GYM CRUSH by Josh Tvrdy

Saturday, 14 August 2021 by Josh Tvrdy
https://fourwayreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Trvdy-Josh-Gym-Crush-Audio.m4a

 

High-slit shorty short-shorts with a neon streak—
                                                      smooth scapulas the size of dinner-plates—
                                       a sleeveless skin-

                                                 tight T-shirt that says, in cursive script, Sweat is just
            pain leaving the body—yes, gym crush knows 
                                                                             how to snag the masochistic gays. 


                Gym crush could crush a can of Crush 
                                against his forehead, easy. But don’t 
                                                                       get me wrong: he’s no mere beefy bod, no,

                     his beefy bod’s a beefy pod protecting his beefier brain. 
                                                                             For example: I overheard him say, Posterity! Micro-
                                       aggression! They had no right to banish Galileo!

                                                                                      Damn right they had no right.
                       I’d like to lick his brain (I’ll bet he tastes like batteries).


                 In the sauna, gym crush grows 
                               little jewels of sweat on his hairless shoulder. 
                When he leaves, his ass leaves 
                                                   a sweat-heart on the wooden slats. 

                                                   I’d like to be those wooden slats. 
                                                                                   I’d like to be 
                                          his sweat-heart, sweetheart, sweet-tart, any part
                             he’ll let me play, I’ll play. His Axe

Body Spray? His week-old tube-socks souring his bag? 
                                     The skimpy towel he drapes over his shoulder, sash-like, 
                  so confident in his bouncing junk, 
                                                daring me—the boy 
                             who strips & dresses fast, as if the light burns—
          to look? Yes. Yes. Once


           I spotted gym crush perched 
                                           on the edge of a bench, a sledgehammer 
                           dangling between his legs. 

                                                                       What does my handsy handyman do 
                             with such a tool? Probably pounds 

tractor tires, or slushes clusters of pumpkins, or punches  
                                                                     craters in the dew-slick grass to make me think
                           horses, happy horses were there in the night!

I’d like to be a happy horse in the night
                                                               (gym crush will ride me till morning).

                                                                                         But first he feeds me sugarcubes.
                                                                               No, first he whispers hey boy, 
                                                                                             then brushes my neck with the back of his hand.

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  • Published in Issue 21
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