It was a cowboy bar in
Tucumcari, New Mexico
& a drunk, haggard old woman who'd been
lured into,
raped, & then
abandoned
by all forms of
life & any shred of
kindness
cornered me by the pool table &
with most of her teeth gone
smiled & said
"You are a beautiful me . . ."
(which I am not)
& she kept on & on about it,
telling me how beautiful I was
& I kept insisting she was
wrong,
& then I lied to her & told her
I had a girl
back home.
Later, whe I left
her & her equally drunk, equally haggard friend
followed me out,
walked behind me as I made for my hotel,
yelling as I walked away:
"Come back, you want a blowjob?
I'll suck your dick, just
come
back . . ."
& I ignored her
& just
kept
walking
Hosho McCreesh is a poet hailing from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has appeared in a number of publications and made previous appearances in Gnome and Devil Blossoms.