Taylor Graham

RODEO QUEEN


Just bad luck to end up

in steel braces

like you used to wear

on your teeth,

that winning smile.

The neighbor boy's


writing an achy-breaky

song about you

in those lavender buck-

skins with the rhinestone

fringe on a rearing

palomino


some other cowgirl's

riding now, and you

in your chair smiling

like you could just

stand up when the music

starts.


Oh, you do the talk-

show circuits,

you've got a book

written by a ghost,

and now they're talking

movie rights.


Who's that actress

going to play you?

you know, the blonde

with the jackpot smile

and two good legs

that can walk.



OPEN 24


Across from the gas station

in an upstairs room

someone's having a pizza party,

beer-barrel honky-tonk & polka

and all the foamed-up laughter.

The other side of the gas station

somebody's rapping at a closed

back door where blues are busting

out from inside much too loud

to answer. Behind the gas

station the moon gets set

to rise, all silver-brocade

and cavalier, and silent

as a world. And on the corner

the gas pumps sit

under their neon canopy

dreaming of oil.


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