M.R. “Chibbi” Orduña

Apparently Straight Boys in Middle School Used to Give Each Other Blowjobs­—
I Didn’t Get the Memo

Free to swallow pansies, be teenage tulips, 
so long as they were buds budding, 
not bloomed, so long as it was

  seasonal. Gay for the summer 
sounds like gay undercover. Pollen 
in a field of birds & bee stings. 

  Whimsical, they twinkle
toe in singlets, chest to chest trying to top
each other before ever bottoming. Straight boys springing

  other straight boys, singing
slurs at feathered boys that glimmer—hummingbirds
in the sun, but they were the ones moonlighting

& mooning. Straight boys love to show their ass
to other straight boys, get a pass for finger tapping
stray balls in showers. Straight boys find the tickle

  in their bodies then bully a flower for giggling. Secretly pitching tents
in sleeping bags—boys scouting whispering corners
at camp. Tie loose knots. Fall for the touch

  of petalled tongues since some flowers
are late bloomers, only pollinating the dark. 
Straight boys stroll through taboo fields, swinging

  their stems in the direction of any songbird,
hide behind the skirts of two words: no homo. 
Me. Homo. Middle school is bird hunting season.

 The Curse of the Blue Footed Booby

Do you know the blue footed booby? Impossible
to miss his iridescent turquoise feet.
Did you know the blue footed booby 

  doesn’t make a nest. It lays its eggs
on the bare ground, then defecates
while incubating them—the dainty eggs surrounded

by a circular wall of excrement.
How gay.
To come out of your shell thanks to a pile of shit.

  Supposedly, booby comes from the Spanish bobo, 
meaning stupid. If I hadn’t been so stupid—if I had hid
my turquoise, I would’ve gotten a lot more dick & a lot less shit.