When I attempt to kiss Julie,

she leans back, says Don’t,

my last patient had Mad Cow Disease.

I say, I don’t care about Mad Cow.

I’m like a mad bull two weeks away

from home, from her, subsisting on Miller Lite

and cheese sticks, and I’m about

to go all bovine if I don’t get a kiss.

I lean in again and catch her lips,

and she says, You’re a fool.

And I say For you.

I hope you get it, she says.

Oh, Love, I say, I already have.

Steve Cushman is the author of three novels, including Portisville, winner of the 2004 Novello Literary Award. He has published two poetry chapbooks, and his first full-length collection, How Birds Fly, won the 2018 Lena Shull Book award. His latest collection, The Last Time, was published by Unicorn Press in 2023. Cushman lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, and works in the IT department at Cone Health.