‘Inventing Sex’ author to read Thursday at Vin Master | Charlotte Observer

Charlotte’s Peg Robarchek is one of the most entertaining and engaging readers I’ve ever heard, as well as a poet of great imagination and wit.

You can hear her on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Vin Master, a New York-style wine bar in Atherton Mills, 2000 South Boulevard, #610, as she reads from her debut collection, “Inventing Sex” (Main Street Rag, $14), which includes the following poem:

THE “F” WORD

The thrill of it,

the first time I hear it.

I recognize his voice

on the phone. He’s the kind of boy

who looks right dangling a cigarette

from his lip, even at thirteen. The kind

who radiates threat when he passes

in the lunchroom,

if you are the kind of girl

who reads a book a week

and turns in her homework on time.

He speaks my name and uses

the word I kow instinctively

cannot be reported to my mother.

I hang up, take his word

to my bedroom and close

the door. Fondling

it in my head, exploring

the boundaries of new territory

I will need no compass

to find.

.