Live and in Living Color: A Personal Ad

By Anna Limontas-Salisbury

Love is about imagination.
So I got on the number 1 train headed uptown,
and announced to no one and everyone,
that I, was available.

I sashayed down the center of the car
Shaking and shimming,
Slithering down a pole with my back,
And shouted above the conductor’s announcement:

Look here, now,
Look here!
Don’t let this patch of grey
Between these braids run you off,
It’s a testimony to the fact
That I have lived and loved
Something fierce.

That I know how to lick a man or woman,
Clean to the marrow.

And I know who to be when receiving the licking!

I haven’t forgotten love,
What it’s like to be loved,
And how to give some love!

Which one of you be needing
Some love, some new love?
Now before you jump on this here opportunity
Let me warn you,
I ain’t cleaning your drawers or
looking after your other woman’s babies.

But for a small space of time, usually somewhere around,
when the wind on 155th and St. Nick gets something cruel,
Just before Thanksgiving and not quite after Easter,
depending on when the groundhog sees his shadow and all,
I am here to tell you, that I’m ready willing and able
To not be your maybe, but your baby!

Prime Loving right honey,
If you ain’t taking, you be mistaken!

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Anna Limontas-Salisbury is a New York City poet, writer, and educator. She’s been a featured poet at Camperdown, a poetry reading series at Halyards, Honey Dipped Productions Girlhood 2020, and Body Love Open Mic Series. Excerpts of her nonfiction essays were performed with COUNTERpult-Reading Series and most recently HTBAF: Honoring Our Ancestors by Open Source Gallery. She’s a graduate of Hunter College and Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.