The fields were golden, no actually golden,
gold bars melted
to form one
sprawling field and Arthur Russell pushed mounds of clay into bales of wheat,
and
we stared out the car window,
our necks made of straw and cinder, you lit our
cigarette,
the fields all glowing like matchsticks,
the sea wind moving us along,
dead wallaby’s on the side of the road.
I pull over to let us both cry,
that is
somehow significant to the ways we unzip and walk out of our bodies.
I hope it will rain today on the long drive, it is much too dry
and the grazing cattle have
gold dust rimmed on their mouths,
I want to lick off that color of wealth,
pray
it does not burn holes.
Nic Alea is a Bay Area based queer/trans* poet and educator. Nic co-hosts the open mic the New Shit Show which focuses on the production of new work. Nic has been published in Word Riot, kill author, the Evergreen Review, and Muzzle Magazine and is a 2012 Lambda LiteraryFellow and a semi finalist in Button Poetry’s chapbook competition for Sad Boy Slumber Party. You can find poems and other thoughts at nicalea.tumblr.com.