“Neck” [by Sarah Arvio]

Neck

That isn’t done Grabbing your girlfriend’s neck

isn’t done I mean it is done by god

often enough but not when I’m the girl

or the friend I love you with all my soul

and all my I don’t know what else to say

my friendliness and my girlishness

but by god my friend do not grab my neck

Neck with me nestle your neck into mine

I’ve been watching the necks of the geese

my geese our geese flying over our heads

and I’ve said goose wander in my chamber

You goose don’t be a gander and don’t be

a geek Be a Greek be a pagan be

a lover of life of me of my neck

Grab my neck my shoulder or my breast

but sweetly if you must my sweet goose

or I’ll call the police Not that the Greeks

were any better at love than we are

always stabbing at their men and their gods

but my god better than the Romans

and their strikes at the neck their split necks

All they did was say do not do do not

do that and thwack off with their head

So if you ask me what Greek is I say

give me a Greek over a Roman

Oh romance romance it’s Greek to me

it was Greek to the Romans and to me

to my roaming heart and my Grecian

gods to my friends and my gods and you

you my silly goose and my strangler

– Sarah Arvio

published in The New Yorker