They Even Haunt Bars

Melissa Gutierrez

I use my sleeve to open the door

Shake it off shake it off

And snowflakes die on the way down from the bar ceiling

As we count the cherry knots on the stained wood

in the forest could have sworn

she heard Artemis humming ‘Hallelujah’ through

the walls of her tent

But the place was getting louder,

The distant jarrs of pickup lines,

Sex with guitar accompaniment

Which I could barely hear

the sound of oceans pulling inward,

sucking the safety of a twenty in wet pants

into the bony hands of a sunken captain

Someone kicks the jukebox alive and

It hacks out a karaoke ditty

From fifty years ago

As we curl our upper lips and pretend to Twist

in the spinning desk chair,

my feet moving fast and the world blurred

as the chair revolutions my stomach into a giddy third dimension

Grab a lumpy booth and lounge

Order up another round of onion rings

The things so greasy our hearts will slow

And slow to a rolling crawl

under the table until he leaves,

under the table as Jafar passes by our table in Disneyland

und my parents never think to look under the table

Shit, what’s under this table?

Sinister stickiness dragging my foot back to the floor

Makes that awful—

Just don’t look down

at the faces thirty feet below,

reciting Longfellow and shaking and tears and

GodI’mgoingtodie in this halter in this tree

The music changes to something flavored with shadows,

Bodies writhing in unset patterns

Gyrating smoothly through the humidity

Or awkward angles shuffling and uncertain

and alone in his room, our parents outside,

following a stupid movie with tension

we lean in and against his lips I think This is it?

The smell of excrement and cigarette smoke

Curls around the bathroom’s occupants,

Try not to taste the air, stomach displeased

Wishing bitterly that men had queues too

much tangerines, Mom said

they’ll give you problems

we stayed in the bush, beneath the leaves

eating problem-fruits and giggling.