~
SOUTHERN FRIED
Excuse me, you’re standing
on my tongue. I do love
your philtrum, by the way,
how it separates your nose
from your upper lip.
You can’t eat a fertilized egg
in Alabama. Preborn chickens
have rights there. Postborn
chickens, however, may be
baked or southern fried.
Food for thought.
Answer this: are you
better off now than you were
thirty seconds ago? I know,
I know, funny as a barrel
of hazardous waste.
But loving you? Like
speed-dating a cobra.
~
From Jefferson Carter: I live in Tucson, where I’m a passionate supporter of Sky Island Alliance, a regionally-based environmental organization. I’ve had work in such journals as Carolina Quarterly, Barrow Street, Cream City Review, Rattle, and New Poets of the American West. Chax Press (Tucson, AZ) published my ninth collection, Get Serious: New and Selected Poems, which was chosen as a Southwest Best Book of 2013 by the Tucson/Pima County Public Library. Birkenstock Blues is now available from Presa Press (Rockford, MI).