"Go West," Young Heathen

in a sleek,
black covered wagon
brimming with boxes of
trade paperbacks
and nosebleeds.

Carry me through the wheel
ruts of Jim Beam and streams
of No One Special, snorting
Bitch, pawing threats.

Pray, set me down at the rest stop
of mashed potatoes.
I’ll lie there until my fingers
wrinkle and my heart
is Moose.

Then drop me in Noe Valley,
where I will marry
a smothered burrito
but fall in love
with a new bridge.

 

 

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Melanie Bates is a writer who loves Windex a little too much, and who sprinkles ground cloves in everything she cooks. She earned her MFA from Seton Hill University, and her poetry has appeared in The Main Street Rag. You can find her drinking Black Pearl oolong and hanging out at MelanieBates.com.