Love is Sharing a Bathroom

Nathan Nicolau

and I also think it’s about the eyes
on you behind the shower curtains, doing
a cute little hug to distract them from the toilet—
which people never saw outside their homes and bars and offices
until the release of the movie Psycho in 1960.
Perhaps it’s strange to mention love, toilets,
and Psycho in the same verse, and there’s
a joke in there somewhere about love being crazy,
but a joke can’t sum up anything—much like how
people grumble “you can’t joke about anything nowadays,”
but there’s plenty we can joke about with someone
we share a bathroom with:
The waitress’s thick accent at dinner.
The spotless houses the characters in rom-coms have.
The reason why women’s pants don’t have pockets.
But until 1960, people didn’t want to talk about a toilet.
I’m glad times have changed because I hope
people know that heart-swelling feeling
when you’re on the toilet while your partner is brushing
their teeth and you tell a joke so dumb their toothpaste splatters
on the mirror, and then when you go up to clean it, they
flush for you.

Nathan Nicolau is a writer/poet based in Charlotte, NC. Since his published debut in 2019, his work has been featured on multiple websites and magazines. He is also the founder and editor of New Note Poetry, an online poetry magazine. Find out more about him at nathannicolau.com.