Keystone Ode with Moving Violation in It
The spare tire in the trunk
is flat. The rubber is rotting;
it’s covered with deer guts and my guts
and my grandmother’s fingerprints.
On the way to heaven
I’ll probably get pulled over
by the cops. I’ll scratch the blue
paint and try to pick the lock.
My ride will break down near a volcano
that looks like a giant boob.
Stranded and thirsty, I ache for one
last taste of this life, dump my shame
in the trunk of a 1989 Dodge Dart
and trespass through cornfi elds.
Out here in the middle of Pennsylvania
there are no corners to turn.
This selection comes from the book, The Book of Dirt, available from NYQ Books. Purchase your copy here! Our curator for this selection is Nilsa Rivera.
Nicole Santalucia is the author of Because I Did Not Die (Bordighera Press) and Spoiled Meat (Headmistress Press). She is a recipient of the Charlotte Mew Chapbook Prize and the Edna St. Vincent Millay Poetry Prize. Her non-fiction and poetry have appeared in publications such as The Best American Poetry 2019, The Cincinnati Review, TINGE, Zócalo Public Square, The Seventh Wave, Gertrude, Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Santalucia teaches at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania and has taught poetry workshops in the Cumberland County Prison, Shippensburg Public Library, Boys & Girls Clubs, and nursing homes. She lives in conservative-small-town Pennsylvania with her wife.
Nilsa Rivera writes about gender and diversity issues. Nilsa Rivera’s the Managing Editor of The Wardrobe for Sundress Publications. Her work appeared in the Huffington Post, 50 GS Magazine, Six Hens Literary Journal, Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, and Selkie Literary Magazine. She lives in Riverview, Florida with her multi-species family.
