OLD BOYFRIENDS ON FACEBOOK
I don’t send them friend requests,
these boys, now men, who lit
me up like bonfires
in celebrations of my younger days.
Today, they are form-fitting suits
with feet propped up
on corner-office desks,
Blackwater mercenaries
with shaky aim pulling triggers,
traveling salesmen talking fast,
pulling bait and switch. They are
on the border of Iraq and Iran
playing pool with natives
who don’t understand a word they say.
They are home in seventeen days,
married last October,
missing a body part I remember well.
They are smiling in photographs
with people I don’t recognize
who don’t write poetry,
who aren’t as beautiful
as me.
© Bryan Borland
First draft, just toying with the idea.
Bryan Borland
December 5, 2009 at 8:56 am
Hey Bryan,
This one gave me a chuckle. It sounds like you’ve certainly “made it” in your own right.
Best,
CH
Covert Homo
December 5, 2009 at 9:13 am
It never would have worked anyway
Blackwater. Really? Ugh.
Bryan Borland
December 5, 2009 at 9:42 am
boooyah! I like it, Bryan. Doling out smiles still. Very enjoyable.
Vic
December 5, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Thanks Vic! Glad you found a smile here. A poetic grin, so to speak.
Bryan Borland
December 8, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I like the text a lot, well written. It is really gay (well you sometimes have that inclination) and a very strong and iteresting ending.
Thamks a lot Bryan be well.
mariana
December 5, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Well, I’m really gay.
Thank you for noticing. 
Bryan Borland
December 6, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Love it. I’d end on the word poetry
with two snaps up!!
Jessie Carty
December 5, 2009 at 9:06 pm
I’m going to try different endings. I think there’s a few different ways I can go with this one. I like playing with images and using Facebook to feed me those images. I didn’t come up with any of the “what they’re doing now” on my own – those come from status updates. Which I think is kinda cool.
Bryan Borland
December 6, 2009 at 5:56 pm
i agree, it reads well, and the message for me is clear.
i like the run of it till the end that makes it all stronger.
you put in a very quick poem a life time (s) and their development as well as your own growth.
Utopian Fragments
December 6, 2009 at 3:40 am
Thanks! Love what you’ve said here about the life time(s) – that’s definitely what I was going for.
Bryan Borland
December 6, 2009 at 5:57 pm
‘missing a body part I remember well’
How come the saddest lines of yours are often also the funniest? Me = awe.
queerlefty
December 6, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Thanks QL! That line is a favorite. Not sure what the hell I’m talking about. That’s how I like it!
Bryan Borland
December 6, 2009 at 8:17 pm
It is woeful bitterness that this poem reminds me of…the ones who would deny your existence.
medicatedlady
December 6, 2009 at 6:46 pm
I appreciate the time it took you to come up with the proper words for this comment, M’Lady. Spoken like a true ghost (aren’t we all?).
Bryan Borland
December 6, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Cryptic statement. Please explain ghost comment.
medicatedlady
December 7, 2009 at 9:22 am
Spoken like someone who has been forgotten (Haven’t we all).
Bryan Borland
December 7, 2009 at 9:24 am
Brilliant.
Paul Squires
December 8, 2009 at 9:28 pm
[...] 3 comments Once in a tempered moon I type their names but the searches return no results. Only three of them are missing. I look on milk cartons and vodka bottles, rouse myself from muddled dreams expecting a somber [...]
OLD BOYFRIENDS NOT ON FACEBOOK « BryanBorland.com
December 13, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Some really great lines. Thank you.
Amanda
December 14, 2009 at 11:15 pm
I’ve just started back on writing poetry, as attempts at academia burned out my writing glands. Very glad to stumble upon your work, and will be stumbling back through it at my leisure.
This one raised a eyebrow as I have at least four exes on Facebook…
critiqaltheory
January 18, 2010 at 3:15 pm