I’d Never Slept With A Mexican Before, He Would Only Do It In The Dark

by Alexis Rhone Fancher

ON THE ROAD

I had a knife with me that day,

I don’t know why.

We just started driving upstate.

When I asked where we were going

he said, “Coffee.”

He was too short for me anyway.

In my dream there was poison in the coffee.

It tasted sweet. I didn’t seem to mind.

IN THE DINER

There were miles between us,

a Sahara.

“It’s okay to smoke,” he said.

“As long as you’re not a train.”

When he reached for my hands

I saw tattooed saints on his wrists

where the long sleeves shortened.

He let go like he’d been burned.

Folded. A barricade. A moat.

I fondled the knife in my purse

till he caught my eye.

“Keep ‘em where I can see ‘em.”

I could live with that.

IN THE MOTEL

We danced in the open space 

between the queen bed and the door.

He sweated through his button down,

a silver crucifix at his throat,

looked like Marc Anthony 

in the motel marquee’s light. 

Free Cable. Free Ice. No Vacancy.

He kicked off his pants, turned out the light. 

Fucked me with his shirt on.

IN THE MORNING

I surprised him in the shower,

saw his tattooed glory, sleeves,

the American eagle 

full-winged across his chest, 

“Semper Fi” emblazoned on

a ribbon in its mouth.

I threw the knife out the window

once the car passed Santa Barbara.

“The road is the journey,” he said, 

the sin of regret in his eyes.

* * * * *

"I’d Never Slept With A Mexican Before, He Would Only Do It In The Dark" was originally published in Slipstream (2014).

Alexis Rhone Fancher is published in Best American Poetry, Rattle, Hobart, Verse Daily, Plume, Cleaver, Diode, Duende, Pirene’s Fountain, Poetry East, Pedestal Magazine and elsewhere. She’s authored five poetry collections, most recently, Junkie Wife (Moon Tide Press, 2018), and The Dead Kid Poems (KYSO Flash Press, 2019). EROTIC: New & Selected, from New York Quarterly, and another, full-length collection (in Italian) by Edizioni Ensemble, Italia, will both be published in 2021. A multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, Alexis is poetry editor of Cultural Weekly. www.alexisrhonefancher.com