Airporter
Yardley, Pennsylvania, an expensive dump and the van seats shake their broken bones. Duty-free liquor and cigarettes, the refineries and the harbor's cranes. The moon digs its way out of the dirt. The branches of an evergreen sway. She's nice the woman you don't love. She kisses you hard and often holding your face in her big hands.
From Tocqueville by Khaled Mattawa, published by New Issues Poetry & Prose. Copyright © 2010 Khaled Mattawa. Used with permission of New Issues Poetry & Prose.