Elegant Perversion
It was freezing in the unheated churches. My hair was uncombed, My eyes couldn’t close. Eyes of the ruling class dead Stared down. Underneath an expensive coat, I had hairy legs and a classical phallus. I wanted to be blindfolded. The hallways of a villa Filled with ghosts of illegitimate children— Those were the voices I heard in your apartment, Scratching the headboard. Rain in the ashtray, rain in the broken chair. In the books stacked around us, People bled over lust For women. In public toilets, Piss tethered strangers To the wall, their hair flattened By rain. When it rained, The squares flooded like the urinals. You like it here, or you don’t. It’s climate change and unbridled tourism. Also the punishment Of the grim gods of water. Their faces line the facades, each one With a different feeling: I am hungry, I am powerful, I am lustful, I am defeated. I lay awake feigning sleep, everything bronze. The water opaque like coffee Swallows the buildings, I play dead in your arms. Appears in The Bronze Arms (Penguin, 2026)
Richie Hofmann is the author of three books of poems—The Bronze Arms, A Hundred Lovers, and Second Empire—and the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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I’m obsessed with Richie Hofman’s work. This is at once familiarly him and new. I hardly have words for how his poems make me feel: they cannot be summarized.
The more I read this poem, the deeper the textures and layers. Just stunning! A PERFECT way to commemorate Pride Month!