Redneck Press with Fried Chicken and Coffee

The girl who went
down on me while I tried to shave
stand­ing over a sink at the Lons­dale
Hotel on Salmon Street
in Port­land

Sin­gle Suites
By the Night Week or Monthly!

I remem­ber
her round brown eyes,
and slow roll of shoul­der
blade; her brow, wet
from the bath, all
that steam in there

and the heav­enly dol­lops
of Bar­ba­sol lather falling
on her pony­tail braid

like dog­wood blos­soms
on a mare's mane,

but I can't seem to pull
her name, I've been try­ing
to pull that sweet name
but it won't come

to me, I'm work­ing the whole length
and breadth of mem­ory, whit­tling it

down, slowly but
surely to either Shyla,
C.C. or Cherie.

It's bound to come
to me any sec­ond
now you can bet it's
fairly burn­ing right
there on the very tip

of my tongue.

Den­nis Maha­gin is a writer from the state of Wash­ing­ton.
His PDF chap­book, enti­tled Bandini's Disco Usufruct, is
avail­able for free down­load at Origami Condom.