"Letter Left Inside 'Sweetheart of the Rodeo' " by Kyle Vaughn

I want to lie with you on a hotel mattress

and listen to a turntable play Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

You should hear this country music, and find like I have,

desire’s poverty in slow, drawled lines.

Midnight weeps like a steel guitar.

The mountain you want moved keeps its radio tuned to night.

I can burn its brush and vines, and everyone will know what dayrise means.

Just watch me on the television bolted to the wall.

Leave your sandals on the green rug by the door,

and come near as water on sleepless banks of a lake.

We were meant to open eyes on the horizon,

why not on each other?

Kyle Vaughn’s poems have appeared in journals and anthologies such as The Shore (2021 Pushcart Prize nomination), A-Minor Magazine, Adbusters, The Boiler, Drunken Boat, Poetry East, Vinyl, and Introduction to the Prose Poem (Firewheel Editions). He is the author of Lightning Paths: 75 Poetry Writing Exercises and the co-author/co-photographer of A New Light in Kalighat. www.kylevaughn.org / twitter: @krv75 / insta: @kylev75 / email: kylev75@gmail.com