Honky Tonk

Green neon
flicker hard_____nighttime
_____awash in starlight.

Cowboy bar
Closer_____indoors_____hard
women with dark roots

hope the men
beer guts_____farmer's tans
look twice_____grunt assent.

They cannot believe
they've become their mothers,
yearning

for a Patsy Cline song
not to manifest.
The next meal

comes courtesy of a citified
sister's plastic -- a sister
hated and loved.

Try harder next time.
Reincarnate on the rez
up the road.

Your fourth-grade teacher
spoke so highly of you.
Girl, I wish you'd heard.