crushed velvet sausage

'90s dads

mine wore black raybans

with lightblue croakies

the saggy kind

rayon aloha shirts

with wooden buttons

so you can leave your shirt open at sunset

when you're on a boat or on a dock

having a gin n tonic in the breeze, I guess

tassel-shoes

or as dad called them,

fishy little loafers

meant for working

spandex bikeshorts

& a hotpink tank top

with a babyblue bandana tied loosely around his neck

and those raybans with the blue croakie

this is what my '90s dad was wearing when he met my highschool boyfriend

who thought dad was gay

for the next few months at least, though he didn't tell me till later

we renamed dad

Steve the Stud

which developed into

Steve the Two-by-Four

because every friday night he'd get us a papa murphys pizza

and some blaxploitation films,

and he'd put on a nice cornflower button-down

and he'd ask me how he looked.

Sometimes I would tell him to change his shoes, or to get out of those black socks

and he'd leave us,
with castration-scenes and rape-by-poolstick

and we would get really stoned
& drink the case of natural ice the river man bought for us