Leather
Tresha Faye Haefner
I like driving too fast on the freeway
to get here where liquor is cheap
and ready to sting me awake.
bad decision broken down by margarita mix
and lapped down with salt.
Forget the flowers.
Give me an excuse to sit
at a barstool with strangers
pecking at their phones. The waitress brings them
tequila and Coke.
I want things manmade.
The leather-stripped cow and tooled into a high heel the color of sex.
More animal than even animal.
I watch the men pull
nameless fish out of the ocean,
their silver bodies flapping in the sand.
Glad I’m not the pelicans
on the horizon hysterically caught
up in a line not meant for them.
Later I’ll meditate. Consider the biodiversity of this
butterfly sanctuary. Apologize to mother
Earth; re-plant some flowers in her rainforest.
But today, give me another Chiliguaro.
Split the lip of the pineapple. Queen bitch
of this jungle. My wallet made of dumb cow.
I’m sick of trying
not to be a predator.
Trying not to smile as I kill
the spider
who has crawled into my hand.
Tresha Faye Haefner
I like driving too fast on the freeway
to get here where liquor is cheap
and ready to sting me awake.
bad decision broken down by margarita mix
and lapped down with salt.
Forget the flowers.
Give me an excuse to sit
at a barstool with strangers
pecking at their phones. The waitress brings them
tequila and Coke.
I want things manmade.
The leather-stripped cow and tooled into a high heel the color of sex.
More animal than even animal.
I watch the men pull
nameless fish out of the ocean,
their silver bodies flapping in the sand.
Glad I’m not the pelicans
on the horizon hysterically caught
up in a line not meant for them.
Later I’ll meditate. Consider the biodiversity of this
butterfly sanctuary. Apologize to mother
Earth; re-plant some flowers in her rainforest.
But today, give me another Chiliguaro.
Split the lip of the pineapple. Queen bitch
of this jungle. My wallet made of dumb cow.
I’m sick of trying
not to be a predator.
Trying not to smile as I kill
the spider
who has crawled into my hand.