By Doug Paul Case
I switched to Head & Shoulders because they did a Gus Kenworthy commercial. I bought a pair of MeUndies because they stuck Gus Kenworthy in a mirrored room with nothing but polka-dot boxer-briefs and a photographer. His grin! His belly hair! No matter they don’t fit me right. No matter his coming out was swiftly followed by his boyfriend sharing an OUT Magazine cover, and I know there isn’t a ring involved, but I have neither the abdominals nor the patience. You’ve got to be friends, you’ve got to wait for a crack in their foundation, you’ve got to be the proverbial shoulder he can be too manly to cry on. Sup, bro? I’m tired, the lighting’s getting to me, I can’t take another black diamond, etc. I don’t even know exactly in what sport Gus Kenworthy competes, but damn it I’ve got the pics from the ESPN body issue plastered all over my phone, naked ski jumps, dear Lord, I need another gay Olympic medal to dream about.
Doug Paul Case lives in Bloomington, where he recently earned an MFA at Indiana University. His work has appeared in Salt Hill, Court Green, Washington Square, Hobart, and Voicemail Poems.