touching myself with electricity

when i was fourteen
i had a lab in our basement
she looked so fine -
wavy pyrite flasks
with squeaky rubber stoppers
curvaceous glass tubing
bunsen burners with
scarlet flames
electric motors
that lurched and sparked


she smelled so sweet -
sweaty cement with green stains
hot wood alcohol
aluminum dust
crackling blue ozone
sulfur and carbon powders
from the a.c. gilbert company
coated nose hair
yellow and black


when i got the special third powder
stolen potassium nitrate
i could make descent pipe bombs


one night i tamed house current
with two copper plates
suspended in a tub of water


why not put my penis in there?


didn't feel much at first
not without conductive salt mixed in
when I put in a quarter teaspoon
it felt funny
just funny


at a half teaspoon
shaft and head pulsated nicely
getting hard
had to lean way forward
pressing down on the stick

at ONE teaspoon of salt
a sixty cycle eel of thrashing blue juice
jumped into the little hole
down the urethra
to the sphincter testicles and bladder


then it hit me-
this will never feel good
and i resolved to rethink my role
as scientist