I can hear the highway from here it is loud like a woman & my car is cramped with my items & even alone I wake curled in the corner of the bed waiting for the others to arrive the sun sets over the park ‘n ride where the ghost of my Pepe unbowed by Franco & famine sips vermouth in a ring of dirt till the end if there is an end a bull on a loop forever scraping up dust thinking what a red cape what a slow surprise that death visits daily, takes a crumb at a time
The wheat was cut to stubble on the earth
Like men cutting stone in the quarry
I was planning a distraction
I was driving day & night
A dog on a long iron chain blushing to rust
When I scrape myself
Against the bottom of the day,
Flirting with the door to my cage,
I don’t suffer from any human loss:
I remember you like a movie we watched
Of course
you sang choir
says Tanya
choir is the most
athletic way
to sing
she was glossy
and high-strung
like a snake
or a greyhound
wrapped
in a cashmere
cocoon
think of all
the things
you can say
instead of
I want
Annie cries
says all she wants
is to be a mom
she will finish her degree
and be a mom
we nod
we touch gently her hand
we are all
in the room
with Tanya
she has this effect
on people
she lowers the
blinds and
we sit on the floor
we are now
in the jungle
we must keep
an open mind
she says
and then begins
the hypnosis:
one by one
the welt of
a mosquito bite
raises on our skin
everyone’s skin
except Annie’s
Rebeca Felix is a Milwaukee-based poet.
