call it

it’s my last night in new orleans i cleaned out

my stuff from the hostel room and stole two

drinks from rousse’s market and as it gets dark

it starts to fuzz my mind as i sit at the bar

not far from the folks doin harry potter trivia

and jose at the bar sayin get far as you can

from new orleans the hurricane hits in two days

but i’ll be long gone by then anyways take a 

shot of china-china remember i never ate dinner

at the trivia table “we have a winner!” and

my phone rings i pick up the call from my mom

it’s been a long time since we tried but grandma died

so i decide on this drunken night to just talk

while i can on the sidewalk using my hand

to catch me as i lean against the hostel walls

we talked more than we have in years n it was half

alright despite my fears n i go in and order a beer

or vodka soda or paloma i don’t know the order

but some guy sits next to me and tells me to try

a cosmo on the rocks it sounds boring but i get

it anyway and he won’t let up talkin about his

beautiful wife and how they moved out to new

orleans for a fresh start he says after his

mental break he fell apart and even though it’s dark

he points out the scars on my arms which i hate

when people i don’t know do but then he’s talkin

about true love and how it makes wrong go right

and about then i say i need to call it a night 

and even though he said he was happily married

it doesn’t keep him from harrying me about whether

i’m going up to my room all alone i say yeah

and you know you’d best go home instead of

trying to pick up drunk young folks who are just

trying to go to bed and are prettier than

you anyway or that’s what i think as i stumble

into the elevator hoping i don’t see him later and

the lift chains rumble as i step back into the box

and again as the hostel dorm room locks and i hold

my scarf shirt together in back cuz i lost the pin

that keeps it together and dizzy hair frizzed from

the humidity i wipe the glitter from my eyes and lie

back on the bed where my head turns the purple 

and blue lights of new orleans into nothing real

—August 2021, Southwest Chief Train (CHI to ALBQ)