On the Day the Last Drag Queen Leaves Town

-
by Eric Leigh
























for Issan

The boys downstairs huff gasoline
off strips of Mother’s emerald gown,
making what joy they can
out of fume and a knockoff Halston.
No note, no explanation, only thing
she left is a hole where reason should be.
You grow a heart and feed it leftovers:
stray earrings, scuffed-out pumps,
the soft pink flame of her first feather boa.
How it curled around her shoulders
when she did the lucky snake dance,
the one with the shimmy, where her hands
dangled at her side and slapped her hips.
And then she’d wave her hand across the air
just as she did every morning when
you’d wake her with an orange for breakfast,
a bowl of milk for her facial, and she’d give
you a word: banana, somehow transformed
by the dissonance of painted lips and baritone.
Truth is you’ll be just fine. Remember a girl
in high heels can still win a race.
You’re just missing the way she knew you—
the way the tree stump loves the ax,
because the blade still sees a use in an old piece
of oak. Drive into town and get drunk,
watch the sole streetlight turn yellow,
sway in the breeze. Wait for someone to ask
about him, then testify. Tell them she was
last seen two-stepping into the dawn, working
the moon for its last bit of butter, the wig
slipping from her head. Because if somebody
goes asking about Mother, seems they need
a happy ending. Go ahead, give it.

From: Harm’s Way
Poems by Eric Leigh
The University of Arkansas Press
2010

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“If Adam Picked the Apple”

-
by Danielle Coffyn If Adam Picked the Apple There would be a parade, a celebration, a holiday to commemorate the day he sought enlightenment. We would not speak of temptation by the devil, rather, we would laud Adam’s curiosity, his desire for adventure and knowing. We would feast on apple-inspired fare: tortes, chutneys, pancakes, pies. There would be plays and songs reenacting his courage. But it was Eve who grew bored, weary of her captivity in Eden. And a woman’s desire for freedom is rarely a cause for celebration.
Read more

White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field

-
Image
Detail from Audubon Plate 121 Snowy Owl by Mary Oliver Coming down out of the freezing sky with its depths of light, like an angel, or a Buddha with wings, it was beautiful, and accurate, striking the snow and whatever was there with a force that left the imprint of the tips of its wings — five feet apart — and the grabbing thrust of its feet, and the indentation of what had been running through the white valleys of the snow — and then it rose, gracefully, and flew back to the frozen marshes to lurk there, like a little lighthouse, in the blue shadows — so I thought: maybe death isn't darkness, after all, but so much light wrapping itself around us — as soft as feathers — that we are instantly weary of looking, and looking, and shut our eyes, not without amazement, and let ourselves be carried, as through the translucence of mica, to the river that is without the least dapple or shadow, that is nothing but light —...
Read more

DREAMS

-
by Mary Oliver All night the dark buds of dreams open richly. In the center of every petal is a letter, and you imagine if you could only remember and string them all together they would spell the answer. It is a long night, and not an easy one— you have so many branches, and there are diversions— birds that come and go, the black fox that lies down to sleep beneath you, the moon staring with her bone-white eye. Finally you have spent all the energy you can and you drag from the ground the muddy skirt of your roots and leap awake with two or three syllables like water in your mouth and a sense of loss—a memory not yet of a word, certainly not yet the answer— only how it feels when deep in the tree all the locks click open, and the fire surges through the wood, and the blossoms blossom. If you want to read more of Mary Oliver’s poems, here are some that I like.
Read more