America: That Feeling When
       

full of suicide Coke

each gush released
in turn into one
white plastic chalice's
open mouth aimed wide
at heaven's fluorescent
fixtures' flickers
to receive

the syrup's sacrament
wild for to hold its aspartame

the super in superfluous
gulp runneth over in
alchemical union

each perfect bubble
bursting to be

ascendant in the straw
that's stiff and red
as a child's drawing
of her father's
hardened artery

you pull off to the side
of a back road beyond a town
where flags wave two
different flavors of anger

flapping simulacra
of the stars above

here in the headlights'
stripes of light
bars of light

as what's in
wants out and can't
wait any longer
for the next gas station
convenience store

you unzip and squat

to darken gravel dust
to ink blot test over which

you bend closer
toward a glint that turns
out to be your

stream shining
a spent shell casing

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Copyright © 2020 Dora Malech All rights reserved
from Flourish
Carnegie Mellon University Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission