I didn’t know I’d love that little town
Vinyl siding, trailer park, O bright
blue propane tanks, lotto tickets
blow against the fence, hair
nests in the drainage grates
And look! After last night’s surprise
frost the clothes on the line are stiff
as a page, and the Goddess is walking
naked while her jumper warms up
Even a cheap town has lyric
But every day equations figure into it
more and more, and once X tweets and Y
alt-tweets, the whole little town gets anxious
and Aunt Madge is back on the Oxycontin
and something weak and tired in me
just wants to steal
Dawn McGuire has four published collections, including The Aphasia Café, winner of the 2013 Indie Book Award for Poetry. Her latest book, American Dream with Exit Wound (2017), is a Small Press Distribution best seller. She was raised in Appalachian Eastern KY, and is on the faculty of Morehouse School of Medicine.