Leslie McGrath: Bitterness in the Mouth
When did the word
for stranger and
bitterness in the mouth
come to mean
a kind of audacity?
I’ve seen in some
men a distinctly
American gall–
they glide over
the rest of us
in their socks like
we’re one long hallway
and they’re late
for a banquet in
their honor. Shameless
they tell us they’ve done us
a favor. We needed
polishing. They needed
traction. Frotteurs
work like this—
we come away wondering
if we’ve been
screwed, gorge rising
as a hard little stranger
gets off.
Frotteur: a person who rubs against another person’s body for sexual gratification in a public place.
Copyright 2017 Leslie McGrath
First published in The Awl. Included in Vox Populi by permission of the author.
