Missoula
1.
Rolled in late and
slept beside a Taco Bell, woke up
dried out and
soaked, gasping with the windows closed.
First coffee, then
our sense of direction, looking for labor,
meet a trio hoofing
off a main drag, tell them to tag along,
soon headed west to
that city of rain.
But then a cold case
and respite on the brambled bank,
a patchwork gaggle
passing-through from every point:
kid from New York
going to or coming from,
can’t hold still to
tell the tale, and some woman calling herself
Iron Butterfly,
maternal with sandwiches and soup, passing around
papers and a pouch
of moist shag. A Scorpio named Cula singing
Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida Baby like some primitive mating call.
Later, a guy named
Doc with knotted locks knocks out
a dude named Buddha,
makes him bleed beneath a sliver of summer moon,
while a girl with a
drum hangs upside down by her knees in a tree, laughing.
His farewell bid
alliterates
in the distant
hills:
Best ‘member me, Muthafucka.
2.
Wake in a field of
flattened grass, bodies sprawled
around smoldering
ash, the sun searing its arc toward midday.
Someone says, Shit, then, C’mon, then, Hurry.
Cheyenne
A between hour
between things,
dark night of the
soul hour,
hour of the wolf.
A van rambling bald
Bridgestones
through unseen
prairies,
static stringing
broken blues
and cracked, early
morning hallelujahs.
East toward central
time,
time-travelling on
land,
cash-wise tapped,
coins
and a few wrinkled
bills,
sunk and hungry,
tank burning miles,
miles gone and miles
calling.
No condition.
For any of this,
sleepless.
Almost Christmas and
the world
is brown and brow
beaten
ghosts coast into
gravel and
neon light.
A bite, a steaming
cup
before they go bust.
William R. Soldan is the author of the story collection In Just the Right Light and two forthcoming collections, Houses Burning and Other Ruins and Lost in the Furrows. His poetry has appeared in venues such as Gordon Square Review, Jelly Bucket, Night Music Journal, Neologism Poetry Journal, and others. He lives in Youngstown, Ohio, with his wife and two children.
William R. Soldan is the author of the story collection In Just the Right Light and two forthcoming collections, Houses Burning and Other Ruins and Lost in the Furrows. His poetry has appeared in venues such as Gordon Square Review, Jelly Bucket, Night Music Journal, Neologism Poetry Journal, and others. He lives in Youngstown, Ohio, with his wife and two children.
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