we are in no Wilmington motel
we are beneath no Wilmington motel - we are pinked in shorts
we are not breaking a sweat - our panties do not face the street
we go home and we work it all out - she stays up late on stage
and I sleep inside me - we get itch cream inside the rose garden
we wear the nights down with red velvet curtains and monstrous lounges
we thrift outside pagan pride - we scheme to gain nothing - we scheme
- for a cup - of jasmine - for a cup - of amethyst
- we are so heavy with purchased meaning
- we avoid each other's eyes inside the heavyliddedness
of an occidental rock concert - we bless each other's hearts under the soaked umbrella - under the rain - under the stares of such southern folk
the southernmost folk - we are using our caucasian tape to hold the world up
- we are shoeless under this sudden southern pour
we are shoeless - skimming stones up blacktopped hills up escape routes
we are learning what it really means to bless another's heart
we are taxied home - we are swift door shut and locked - we are talked out runnels dried under hardwood floor and sleeping bags - we are in/between
two stately buildings - like cowboys - facing East and facing West
poised to draw a biker's fleet against a biker's fleet - but the cascades
frighten every fleet away - we fotograph our knees - shelly buys our drinks
i am dripping in the misogyny of the place - the fuchsia on billiards
the waxed abdominals on plush screens - the faerie lights glyphing over
a scene: a blue-most fountain - an empty concrete dance floor - a triplet
of young lesbians chittering at the gaffs of the skirtless and sweatered stranger a triplet of young lesbians alert at the emphatic new-found woman
pleasured to be heeled - unfettered in wig purchases - unspun in identity convinced not one of us will forget her - unforgotten by rulebook - by law
and i promise – i bless this promise - that i will do it all - this forgetting business i will forget the disrespect to balance – I will dispel the swift occultation of the becoming a woman - and ask you questions and questions
that will pressure you to find the right answer - the answer where it turns out everyone waits outside
by Kristin Peterson, from somnieeee
