Eva Moe

Category: poetry

  • Tempe, Arizona

    Tempe, Arizona
    is the Oscars on a blowup bed,
    my dog saying No to the desert mountain,
    mystery mariachi slipping over a wall,
    drinking beer at the movies
    dining at a hot Mexican restaurant and the check
    insisting that friendship is expensive.
    Tempe is the place where you find out
    you are hotdish and your friends are sushi.

  • Yellow Amarillo

    Yellow Amarillo,
    I almost did not find you because of the sunset.
    That fucker took my eyes like a beak to marbles
    and the visor in the car? I slapped my face with it.
    Knocked the wraparound sunglasses clean off
    in a rush to see the road again
    but the sun spat “look at me, you ignorant swine”
    and I was like, “Amarillo?”

  • A Dollar Twenty

    A Dollar Twenty
    it’s 2017 and I owe the library a dollar twenty.
    I forgot four books at once
    but they don’t talk about it at the checkout.
    no “hey look it happens but if you don’t pay us back
    you’ll never read Stephen King in this town again.”
    Consider me a villain.
    Give me a franchise.

    Miss Sayonara and the Book of No Return
    and the reVIEWS, darling!
    Box Office Anti Hero Stuffs Two Dollars in Envelope
    Bloody Insignia Indicates Unstable Temperament
    Non-Returner Repents
    Book Bandit at it Again
    Library Seeks Revenge
    she owes a dollar fifty.

    That’s it? I’ll give you three.
    Take my dreams to the laundromat
    show me the muscles of your forearms         dry
    here’s the chipped yellow grass you can water with sepia tone
    dye this landscape burnt orange like those teeth in that Western
    read me the trash about galloping abs
    you want a dollar fifty?
    I raise you my space ship
    pirate ship         indigo baby dragon
    majestic brown horse         washboard nihilists
    will they won’t they modern friendship
    psycho brawler         dream thieves
    bank bullets        shooter boots
    a black cat         a salt circle
    a weather woman shoots rain from her eyes
    into the neck of a hipster
    and I return to you with these stories.

  • Omaha

    Grandma’s yellow raincoat makes me eerie
    like a liquor woman undercover
    like the man who waves back follow the leader.

    I want to hear the ocean boom from the belfry,
    a sonorous bell singing nine p.m.

    The town fell dark before I arrived
    so I forgot to fear the men
    this city gave me
    new air, wet tires

    My hometown shadow scales the tower
    I play the old game, follow the leader.
    The belfry plays nine thirty.

     

  • Road

    I’ve been on the road for two weeks without doing laundry anywhere but the sink.
    I brought a white flowy tunic specifically for Arizona.
    Now the cuffs are tan in Denver.
    my laptop clicks when it opens and I wince because I’ll need a new one,
    but I gave my money to the waiters in Tempe.
    I’m drinking Folgers in a borrowed mug,
    thinking about Minnesota.

  • Dirt Dog

    the three of us uncovered a classroom skeleton in playground sand
    just the left arm, no shoulder
    i wanted the rest of it

    later that day i took a knife to my throat
    cut a paper thin circle. Shoved a sponge down those froggy tubes
    and pulled it back out
    i would not be sick anymore

    then i tossed the arm in a garbage bin
    along with the sponge, put my skin back on
    and pedaled back to the others on the Dirt Dog

  • Enemy Friend Request quick write 

    you taught me how to hate and for that I am eternally grateful
    I learned how to betray a good friend (you) without guilt
    for that I can only thank myself

    you saw me in the nightclub
    grabbed my shoulders
    said hello
    That night I also saw alien porn projected on the venue’s screen

    A haunted house and a 3 meter dick (old vacuum hose?)
    a feeble woman jogs away from whatever arts and crafts the production team got into

    I find myself near the Triple Rock where the slimy penis flopped around
    Somehow I think of you first.
    Dammit, woman.
    I cast you as Lifetime Arch Enemy & paid you in thoughts on a rolling basis
    Now I’m hiring.
    I wish you still thought my name was a curse
    you wrote such wonderfully horrific things about me.

  • Doppelganger

    saw a guy in the street who looked like another guy I tricked myself to love
    so hell, I loved him too
    but he walked away as if I didn’t look like his last lover.
    what a dick!
    is there a guy out there who sees me and says
    Damn that’s Patrice!
    That’s Marie!
    She’s the one for me!

    Cashiers ask if they’ve seen me before.
    I tell them no and look to the cars outside for my doppelganger
    who must be nearby.
    Maybe she’ll find the guy from earlier
    and break his heart out of supernatural loyalty to me.

  • Rubber Trees in Malaysia

    To me it looked like a regular young forest
    Liang said they’re Rubber Trees
    to be cut down on their fifth birthday
    i picture the entire forest falling down on the trampoline ground
    bouncing back into place
    a lumberjack’s nightmare

  • Cul de Sac Childhood WIP

    the three of us uncovered a classroom skeleton in playground sand
    just the left arm, no shoulder
    i wanted the rest of it

    later that day i took a knife to my throat
    cut a paper thin circle. Shoved a sponge down those froggy tubes
    and pulled it back out
    i wasn’t going to be sick anymore

    then i tossed the arm in a garbage bin
    with the sponge, put my skin back on
    and the three of us rode on tiny bikes around the village.