Ain't that just like Scarlett O?

Ain't that just like Scarlett O?

I rise from within
the miasma of me,
and the need for smokes
supersedes the ever burn
to strategize about him.

I splash my face,
grab things new and borrowed,
inspect the violet blur
under my eyes,
dab makeup,
change my mind,
take my mother's shades,
(she doesn't need them,
she hides from the sun
since my dad passed away,
she chases shadows and Papa Chu).

I walk in black and white,
full maned dissident child,
through last night's
Bardot sun dried sheets,
and stand in line,
shifting weight
from leg to leg
ponder on him,
he is no knight
in shining armor,
I'm no princess,
I'm a better rider,
and my horse
is black as the thoughts
of the woman rolling cigars
on her sex rounded thighs.

From the back of the store,
she throws dark glances
sharp as lances,
that speak of unbridled passion
in the belly of a shipwrecked cruiser,
grounded and rusted for years,
and I get the stench,
the rot of my father's
countless affairs.

I lift a cold beer,
wryly toast the sharp eyed wench,
she smiles,
and her smile is gapped
by close encounters with
a grim likeness of love,
and I am unhinged,
bruised by loss
and doorways slammed shut.

Cause this man
can take me or leave me,
often he leaves me,
at times he wants me urgently,
he is intrigued and afraid
of my intense in his face
barefoot debates,
and the way I forget words,
kiss him to distraction,
then run wild
when he doesn't get me,
when he doesn't steady me.

I must get over
his love branding,
he sears me and
I double over in anguish,
I must chase him
to exhaustion,
I have to have him.

I get on with morning,
Tantalus and his torments
are for late nights,
and I wear chase-me jeans,
and I pack smokes,
and swig beer labeled
Victoria all the way home.

Ain't that just like Scarlett O?


by Anna Donovan

Anna Donovan, a Nicaraguan in Texas is a survivor of the Sandinista revolution and has made a life for herself in the US. Donovan has always loved words and languages. AD says, "Writing is the way I align words with my inner compass."