Midsummer is silver and this night,
we pinball!
—the headlights!
—the stars!
hardboiled and brimming with pink-eyed sincerity
sap heavy in our bellies and no place to go
we pinball!
careening and shrugging guardrails
that hungry lovesong from the karaoke
crackling silverstatic in our skulls ‘til
you tilt
—you tilt!
your neck out the cab window and howl
the only words you know :
—and you GIVE
—and you GIVE
—and you GIVE YOURSELF AWAY
and your voice is like catgut on catgut
your larynx is an hourglass rasping mic-checks, echoing
the desperate grit of cicada cycles, cuz you remember Angela,
sweet Angela and O
Her arms
—Her arms!
—like rivers!
tributaries to heartchambers but, baby,
this is our story—
the stars know nothing of us,
our tedious dedications
Danielle McMahon has poems in Vilas Avenue, Free Verse Revolution, Alice Says Go F*ck Yourself, and elsewhere. She is editor of the engine(idling, an online litmag. Instagram @dehm000.
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