Eric Joonho, “My Banker”

Author: Poetry Editor

December 11, 2013

This week, a poem by Eric Joonho.

MY BANKER

Today I met someone for brunch

My first date since November:

He was late and his hair was red

Ludicrously dyed, fiery

And my shirt was blue as usual

And my hair was black, and I drank

Black coffee four more cups after parting

With this nice boy, an actor.

The coffee burned my throat as it slid

Down, not from heat, but from spice

As if there were cayenne in there

As if a demon had slipped me a red pill.

I sat for hours and read my Steinbeck novel

You know, the big one

About the dispossessed family that loses everything

To a bank.

I dated a banker once

Cool and green, he loved me for a while

He said so, he said that.

When I finished my coffee, I got on the train

And it was especially bad this time

Because I think I saw the other man

My banker’s new man:

Perfect hair, cleft chin, tall.

What cruel little finger designed it this way

To happen on my successor in the flesh

To wish it were someone much worse filling

My big blue shoes.

Still, it was good to know my banker traded up

Good to know he was so cold to me

Good to know he was so good to me to leave me.

——

Born and raised in Georgia, ERIC JOONHO is a doctoral candidate in English at Columbia University.