Today's poem is by Rustin Larson

Electric Deer
       

Twitching tails in headlights
berries fermented swigged from flasks
black trucks juice of the juniper
braids of patriotic tricolor
red trucks for the brave and the death-wishing

crepe paper knit
hopped up on cola and pep pills snorts of snow
high school gym's Snow-Ball Dance
legs drum rhythms bass riffs to the tangle
of Johnny Uproar and the Falcon Snitches

walk unfazed across my backyard under the junipers
bomb of fertilizer compound I can do nothing
the word United on the side of a building
flashes of things through the eyes of others
the driveway cautiously silent as snow

rooms lit by electric furnaces
girls in hand-made warmers alpaca wool knitted
ice-follicled wizarding the sunset
squeezing together their legs
jangling the junipers

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Copyright © 2023 Rustin Larson All rights reserved
from Flower Mountain
New Chicago Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission