MASC 481 assignment:

(Use the words "sweet tea", "potato", and "antifreeze" in a piece of written work.)

We didn’t work
like a Mattress Warehouse cashier
who gives away sheets free.
All I ever wanted
was one milkshake with two straws,
but she only drank sweet tea.

My heart in fickle hands like a hot potato.
Shot through it even, like the second
God Father got Fredo.

Made me feel like a weeping willow.
Ya’ know, one of those fancy trees.
Poisoned at the root,
like my veins were trying to suck up
antifreeze.

Midas Meets Medusa

Midas meets Medusa at a bar on 25th.
He feels her glare in the mirror behind, he smiles, she looks away.

This interrupts his routine of sit and drink and sift,
Through the countless fools and shiny frauds he stares at every day.

Medusa’s eyes find their way back to Midas, might as well.
Reflection harmless, she wondered who this man was, who touched nothing. 

Except a straw, stemmed in beer, whose fearless eyes never fell. 
A quarry of lovers she left behind, but she’d never done the loving.

Stone cold, rose gold, first date flowers too heavy to hold.
Both standing there, statuesque.
Stomachs flipping, arabesque.

He holds her nervous eyes in his. Wishing they’d make contact. 
She fixates on his finger tips. Wishing they’d make contact.