Poem of the Day

Kisses of the Union: All the Way to Arkansas

Drunken flies buzzed my ear
as I whispered to her mouth,
"Guess the state" and kissed her
my idea of Tennessee--
its long-night drive
and its whiskey breath,
its rusted roadside wrecks
and burning barns.

"Alabama?" she drawled
into my neck and dropped
a scuffed shoe
on the concrete floor. "My turn"
she said with two blinks
and a serious laugh.

And so I am here,
driving through bugs
breaking like pills
on my windshield
driving through the moon
splashed on the macadam
all the way to Arkansas.