Mexican Luau

Watching the sunset
on TV like
27 postcards cooking
on the manifold of a rusted-out
’64 El Camino

just this side of Ensenada

You don’t have to think too
much about the next-to-last
shot of tequila

the life story that inspired
a generation of drug users
& the primer gray shadow it
parked in your eyes

as we recall extinct oceans
wavebreaks that no longer exist
strung out like chrome rosary beads
at the bottom of a motel swimming
pool

the color of your lips