AS THE STOMACH TURNS

Gale has the sex appeal

of a three hundred pound chain-smoking long-hauler.

She started driving taxi with us

and then she got her husband Rick

a job driving here too.

Rick’s five feet one and pulls

his pants up to his ribcage.

Then last month Gale told Rick

she was screwing Edwardo,                                                

the dispatcher with the cyst on his neck

the size of a buckeye.

Edwardo moved into Gale

and Rick’s house,

but Rick can’t afford to leave,

and so now he sleeps

in the spare room.

After working all night,

all three go home, take turns

in the can,

then hit the hay

as the sun’s coming up.

Sometimes Rick can hear Gale and Edwardo

having sex, like all

the tea in China.

Other times all he can hear

is their breathing.