Lou-Jean

Here in Rodriguez

The warm is a lover

A hand full of rainfall

A kiss from a stranger

Who shouts from the terrace

"You're all still in danger!

I was once you

Only here

Only younger."

I gave up my laughter

To pay off my ransom

As I strolled into diners

With skies of fluorescent

Married to pay phones

And numbers in stalls

My name is your husbands

His name a last call

Here in Apache

I sat in the front seat

Convincing the crosswords

To lay here in lowercase

Stop lighting fashion

And you in your overcoat

Talking of movies

And families not seen before

I was kept quiet

In the back of a trailer

Holding the tapes

Of songs never heard

Coughing up desert

He smiled then assured me

"All is not lost

Only hidden till later"

Here in Elaina

The skies are a firework show

No ticket is needed to enter here

Two step your way down

The street I first met you on

You and your radio

Me and my grandmama

Dressed in her turquoise

And me with Loraine

Walking like ghosts in the frame

Blurring the photos

You shouted "Forget it!"

All is not lost

If you stand still and wait for it

Night time Laredo

The stars are a stanza

The parking lot poems

I scrawled onto paper bags

This will go nowhere

Addressing the atmosphere

I was a nobody

Talking to tape machines

Recording the TV

And the sound of my voice

Playing it back at half speed

Pulling the bed sheets

And frames from the walls

Searching for peace

That was mine all along