The Key to Acting Is Sincerity

Look, she squinted through the smoke

Of a hopeless cigarette

Dropping untapped cylinders

Of collapsing ash. Listen

To the Warm made me shudder

The first time I spotted it.

I wasn’t some highbrow snob.

I was a raw teenager,

Ignorant of poetry

Other than pop songs and hymns.

But I knew creepy, gooey

Sincerity at first sight.

It was like a stranger’s hand

Touching my leg, that title.

And don’t try to dress it up,

Calling it synesthetic.

Synesthesia can stink.

She stubbed out her cigarette.

Give me a butt-freaking break.

I know manipulation.

That’s what sincerity’s for.

He was peddling emotions

Back to whoever bought them

To pretend they were their own.

Tell us how you really feel,

Someone wisecracked awkwardly

And got a glare in response

Across the bar, long ago.