April in Elysian Fields Quarterly, The Baseball Review: HOT STOVE ISSUE, Vol. 23/No. 1 • 2006
Norwegians in Late Autumn, the Upper Midwest in Zone 3, Spring 2003
The Wind-Up, the Delivery, in Dogwood
Prof. Jay Hill's Web Page

LYRIC POETRY

I want to sleep with you in the desert tonight
- The Eagles

Ever been in the desert at night?
It gets cold fast &
you hear lots of creatures you
can't see, some poisonous.

Also in the desert you're
typically far from home
where there is a girl who's
right for you. Tonight

she's doing her nails in her
unpicked-up apartment
between chapters of The Mill on the Floss
& thinking "Why is it

so many men are
emotionally unavailable?"
No, that's descriptively inaccurate.
The girl you ought to fall

all over yourself to
win the attention of
has better things to dwell on
than the opposite sex

She's not like this woman you're
with who is, to be sure,
thoroughly engaging
in her own right―

just not the one for you.
As it happens, she is
thinking about men,
you in particular,

& saying to herself,
"How cheap is this?
What's with the sleeping bag
and cast iron skillet?

Why can't we check-in to
a decent damn hotel
with thick towels & room service?"
Meanwhile, you're happy

as a troll
under a bridge
having dropped the tailgate
to unload the Coleman stove

and cardboard box with
cornbread & beans,
a bottle of Jack,
and your brother's twelve-string guitar.

O you romantic devil, you.

April in Elysian Fields Quarterly, The Baseball Review: HOT STOVE ISSUE, Vol. 23/No. 1 • 2006
Norwegians in Late Autumn, the Upper Midwest in Zone 3, Spring 2003
The Wind-Up, the Delivery, in Dogwood
Prof. Jay Hill's Web Page