"Help! I've Been Invited To A Cuddle Party" by Jendi Reiter
Help! I’ve Been Invited To A Cuddle Party
lately since becoming a dickless man I feel power over women ignoring they see me in my Jerry Orbach in Dirty Dancing golf shirt as their fathers in other words they'll fuck me and be angry what great confessional poetry I'm seeding in this neck massage a weedy warmth I smell the roots of her hair is this sex to be open to disgust he picks up my foot like it's his own taint he's pressuring with his thumb I regret my argyle socks is this sex when a baby becomes a porcupine so his mother's waves of hungry love don't crawl all the way inside my first memory is holding my breath Patrick Swayze is dead but this man sweats like him stretching his ropy dancer's arms across my chest my nice flat itchy scars I could do something to this woman's stomach I want to touch like a water bed to that man who intimidates me like a horse is this sex when I lie crushing his hard hipbones he rolls his proud eyes I sink into my own gut like Baby when the mean girls in daffodil-cup dresses whisper about her back-kitchen tango I apologize for leaning on his windpipe I am not losing my hair in a fashionable way at home my husband has a broken leg is this sex when I hold the bowl for his mouthwash spit and kiss his unplastered toe while we watch Errol Flynn leap gallantly from the galleon's rigging my husband does not want to cuddle Errol Flynn I used to want him to fuck me but now I just want his boots is this sex when as a galley slave he's whipped filthy and shirtless I felt at age ten I shouldn't have seen that hot and disturbed if I wasn't pure something would kill me that was when I became a pervert I invited my husband to the cuddle party in his wheelchair but he squeaked like The Sea Hawk's Spanish maiden when the rose thorn pierces her thumb his movie is over the queen has declared victory and I wash his balls with a sponge Appears in Introvert Pervert (The Word Works, 2026)
Audio: Jendi Reiter reads “Help! I’ve Been Invited To A Cuddle Party”
Jendi Reiter is the author of the novels Two Natures and Origin Story, both from Saddle Road Press; the story collection An Incomplete List of My Wishes (Sunshot Press); and six poetry books and chapbooks, most recently Introvert Pervert (The Word Works). Their awards include the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival Prize for Poetry, the Oscar Wilde Award from Gival Press, and two Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowships. They are the editor of the writing resource site WinningWriters.com.
https://winningwriters.com/
https://saddleroadpress.com/jendi-reiter.html
https://wordworksbooks.org/product/introvert-pervert/