“When I Turned Sixteen Mother Let Uncle Kenny From Chicago Take Me For A Ride”

by Alexis Rhone Fancher

1. Uncle Kenny let the top down on the Chrysler,

fedora protecting his tender scalp.

When I got into the car

he threw his arm over the bucket seat,

fingers grazing the back of my skimpy tube top.

2. PCH, left on Sunset, he took Deadman’s Curve

like a pro, then the slow cruise to

downtown. Like he’d been here before.

July baked my bare shoulders.

Like Uncle Kenny, I burned easily.

3. Sunset ended at Olivera Street.

My uncle chose La Golondrina Cafe.

I ordered the cheese enchiladas.

He ordered a double Margarita, extra salt.

Things I Learned At Lunch:

Dress Well.

Travel Light.

Marry Up.

My mom says you’re good for nothing, I said.

Uncle Kenny slid so close in the booth

his trousers tickled my thigh.

I once made love to Hedy Lamar,

he confessed.

He ran his tongue around the rim of the

margarita glass, licked the salt. His

blue eyes stared right past me.

When the mariachis reached

our table, Uncle Kenny pulled me from the booth,

spun me around the restaurant.

Like all big men, he was light on his feet.

4. The overpriced gold and ruby chandelier earrings

serenaded us from the store window.

5. How much damage, my mother reasoned,

can he do my girl in one afternoon?

6. When Uncle Kenny died soon after

in flagrante delicto, no one was surprised.

I heard it was his heart, my mother said,

but I know he didn’t have one.

She clipped his obituary out of the paper,

pinned it to the refrigerator with a magnet.

In my heart I knew differently.

I drove PCH north, left on Sunset,

an Uncle Kennyesque fedora

shading my eyes.

At Dead Man’s Curve

I threw my head back like I’d seen

Hedy Lamar do in the movies.

My chandelier earrings tinkled in the wind.

* * * * *

©-Alexis Rhone Fancher. First published in Alyss, 2016. Also featured Alexis Rhone Fancher's new collection in Enter Here (2017)

Alexis Rhone Fancher is the author of How I Lost My Virginity to Michael Cohen and other 

heart stab poems, (2014), State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies, (2015), and Enter Here (2017). 

She is published in The Best American Poetry 2016, Rattle, Slipstream, Hobart, Cleaver, The 

MacGuffin, Poetry East, Plume, Glass, and elsewhere. Her photographs are published 

worldwide, including the cover of Witness, Heyday, and Nerve Cowboy, and a spread in River 

Styx. A multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of The Net nominee, Alexis is poetry editor of Cultural 

Weekly. She lives in Los Angeles. Find out more at: www.alexisrhonefancher.com