Sunday, May 25, 2014

Transport

The tollbooth attendant at the Golden Gate
straightens her CalDot uniform tunic, checks her name badge. She keeps hoping
for Prince Charming in a Ford Cutlass
to drive up and sweep her away—
they’ll drive past Chinatown, past the street where the red lanterns hang
just like outside the house
where she was born. She turns on the radio.
Rachmaninov. “Variations on a Theme by Paganini,”
out of Russia by Italy, not the route
this woman’s mother walked on bleeding freezing feet.

She works by the highway and waits for a ride.
When she gets tired of waiting
she’ll get her own: a horse, a bow,
a lance, a sword. Down through the fan district
on scarlet hooves:
conquering.

--word salad

Available! High-Voltage Lines, Knocking from Inside

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