the crowd was getting rowdy when we reached the stage
and I felt him pressed behind me trying to keep me from the crush
of the fans who fist-punched the air with the chorus
in the spray of the lead singer’s spit suspended in the lights
then his hand on my waist pushed me sideways so the elbow
of that frat boy in the mosh surging near us would miss my cheek
my feet sticking to the floor crunchy with the plastic of forgotten beers
outside again on the sidewalk he pressed me against a streetlight
stapled full of flyers for a roller derby to kiss me in its spotlight 
but we couldn’t stop laughing and my ears were still ringing
and the bass kept pounding in my chest