Hula Roach

Alone as now feeling like a dented fender
I buzzed my way back thru 19 beers
defining the way the fog reacts
on both sides of a loaded steel guitar

She was waiting for me when I got there
her name’s Epiphany
she was wearing a Peloponnesian bikini
two sizes too small
              & it’s like a contest winner’s tears
                              starting fires at the bottom of the ocean

for a split second there it’s so beautiful
                                                                        nobody notices

but one remove from the look away tango
& my lungs pump sand beneath the pier
cradled by the drizzle tide like Saigons of
parkinglot disdain & lamentation

hoisting the amphetamine pez dispenser
in the elegant wreckage of yet another
bloodred turquoise sunset