Tequila Country

by Rane Arroyo

Truckers in "bring-your-own-demons” bars
talk about their loads as if sperm counts and

careers are intertwined.  They’re extras for
the latest movie version of Dante’s Inferno,

Texas style.  But I’m here and feeling at home.
Hermanitos, por favor, buy me enough tequila

until I’m speaking in tongues.  No, one says,
don’t make my mistake.  Which was?  He blushes

and returns to his woman who can’t housebreak
the jukebox.  He leaves and turns his head to

stare at my stare.  It’s Friday night, and I’m younger
than any of the prophets have ever been in public.

 

Rane Arroyo’s latest books are The Portable Famine (poetry, BkMk) and How To Name A Hurricane (fictions, University of Arizona Press). “Tequila Country” is from his completed poetry manuscript about his wild horse days, Far West Of Eden. He lives and writes in Toledo, Ohio. (3/2006)