The Desert

Maybe the deep south
of California and Arizona
has it right.
Where cars chew
on gas and congestion
much the same way
our guts do.

These are our anxious
cities and regions
where lipstick cakes
stain the sidewalks
with traces of fat and poppy seeds,
and women walk with fat purses
made for self-defense.

Where the sidewalks
glisten with tinsel,
and heat risers
that lift dresses
past ankles and pumps
and macrame thigh highs.

Where hanging pots
drift on porch winds
waiting for winter and rain.

Fairness Peck, a poet living in Seattle WA, holds a BA in literature and poetry from Western Washington University and an MA in communications from the University of Washington. Today he works as a content strategist and his work has been recently published in The Racket Journal, Red Noise Collective, The Rising Phoenix Review, Griffel and has a chapbook forthcoming from Finishing Line Press.