pick up line by Tyler Gillespie
Associate editor Andrew Walker on this week’s bonus poem: In “pick up line,” Tyler Gillespie paints a picture of a first night between two people distilled into its most cherished moments. The poem is so intimate, tender and the perfect hint of hot, it makes the reader forget these two flirtatious individuals have only just met, that they haven’t even left the bar.
pick up line
You’re so handsome I want us to leave
this bar & hold hands in my car. We’ll skip
all the steps to my apartment. You’ll look
at the Dali print in my living room & hesitate
before you tell me a secret: you don’t like
the surrealists—they aren’t real painters.
I’ll laugh seagulls as I cut limes for a nightcap.
Listen to the knife make love to the rind.
I’ll tell you about the time Hugh Jackman
asked me for directions. You’ll tell me
about the time you caught your father
cheating. I’m sorry I’m a liar, I’ll say.
Is it hot in here, you’ll say, or is it just
you? I’ll put on a sweater; then, a coat.
You’ll tell me I’m funny without trying.
When the Joni record stops, we’ll make
our way to my bedroom. I’ll ask you
to read the poems you write during breaks
at the factory or wherever it is that you work.
You’ll tell me you usually don’t do this kind
of thing. Nervously, you’ll unzip your bag.
Pull out a notebook. Show me your pages.
They’re so wonderful, I’ll say. (& mean it.)
I’ll ask you to read them again. Again. & again.
Tyler Gillespie is an award-winning writer and teacher. He's the author of the essay collection The Thing about Florida: Exploring a Misunderstood State (UPF) as well as the poetry collections Florida Man: Poems (Red Flag Poetry) and the nature machine! (forthcoming, Autofocus).
