Coffee black, cactus tongue sharp,
and a tin halo makes Louise
Mother Mary of the only
Wal-Mart that can brag
bear spray is their biggest seller.
It doesn’t take an Einstein to guess
Kodiak Alaska wasn’t named after
a cattle ranch in Texas or a chicken farm in Arkansas.
Up in the chill where remote
doesn’t describe an armchair controller,
Louise is the best glitter on ice for miles.
She brags the doll ambulance (make-up section)
is where a lady can paint her cheeks tulip pink
to tease a man into believing she’ll stay longer
than a bikini strut on Homer Spit Beach in January.
No one really knows how Louise ended up in Kodiak.
She doesn’t talk about her past or wink and flirt about the future.
It seems to the locals she’s a unicorn in the rough,
a salty angel with a southern drawl who dropped
her wings in the Wal-Mart parking to hold court
in a kingdom where you can buy a gun and plastic ivy.
©Susie Clevenger 2025
I really don't know how my poetry arrived in a Wal-Mart in Kodiak, Alaska, but my muse took me there. So I did some research, (yes, poets do research), and I found my Louise. :)
Oh stoppit, show-off! Ha! I just love this! Now I want to go buy some fishing gear or something and I don't fish!
ReplyDelete(Btw, poets certainly DO do research! Sometimes the research takes longer than the poem itself, in my experience.)
I just love this in its entirety, Susie. You make us see so clearly not just the edge, but the woman who stands on it and isn't afraid to fall off because, hey, she may fly. I especially like "Up in the chill where remote
ReplyDeletedoesn’t describe an armchair controller,/Louise is the best glitter on ice for miles..." and "..she’s a unicorn in the rough." Really vivid writing.
Your poem took me on a trip, and I enjoyed every minute, deeply admiring the imagination, the incredible story the words took you (and us) on, and the descriptions which are edgy and amazing. Wow.
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing poem. Louise would be a wonderful character in a novel. She has so many layers to her. I want to know more.
ReplyDeleteYou may not know how your poetry arrived in a Wal-Mart in Kodiak, Alaska, but I'm glad it did! Enjoyed this very much--and I hope she ends up in more poems!
ReplyDelete"best glitter on ice for miles" ... indeed! so glad shay's word garden brought me to black ink howl. :)
ReplyDeleteSo good: “ Mother Mary of the only / Wal-Mart that can brag / bear spray is their biggest seller.”
ReplyDelete