Steffi Drewes

Lasso New Landmarks: Stitched In Skin

                                                          —for Andrea


i.
Outshining Iowa, July heat
wrestling boys, wrestling
mass appeal, pink personas

quick parody, snag some lashes
we all knew better than
jutting chins out hip thrust

get sidewalk strutting
and strap song, don’t leave it all
leaning, like rotted out columns

where brick cracks and falters, don’t
let the hand do the sorting, the eye
is the candy for twitching veins

skin thick
my gridwork, my girls
walk in every arena

K buys it bold framing it, pockets the cash
D finds it broken re-builds it then brings to the table
A needles and kinks it patch hard rustle splatters it
S uneven lines it, swallowing color, lit slow



ii.
But what about sweat and tonic
waterproof lined eye gestures
grease up and gamble

she swore not to torque heel
but unsteadily so, Chicago
gone sprawling on-stage, her
every crevice seeks carnival eye
where shredding lace
bares tattooed necklines

art edgy meets carnal
heavy heart throb, abandon
stage fright, less concern over
who’s coked up breast stroked
getting cover-girled
shoveled under other egos



iii.
So keep lip streak and reigning
this curve’s what we’re looking for
can’t undo what seeps inside
keeps the drive, mad devotion

to slither tongue sideways
born of corn snakes
each maker sought skyscrapers
getting left letting lost keep circling

the occasional stage sounds, stunning
pressed our ears to his
every speaker, passed from sofa sleeper to
caught in jeepers creepers whose hands

off the light switch
swift pitch groping flesh
fumbling, to remember who by
the bayou, that bitch’s broke

fleeing, the queen of scene spoke
dig me up a sandwich
where the crawdads
don’t float




iv.
Pop art smash seen in flashbulbs
dizzy half-smirk go lolly it
London crowns New York
still fawning over a fresh
shade of blue, a song, his eyes
and after, valley strong awnings
to huddle under, inhale
get angled, aim our sight toward
said map value
she’s south west and central
come matching this cat verse
speak solemnly, go



v.
At breakneck speed
to breed answers, ask

some stitches or silk-screened stripes
soaked in taunts, turpentine,

a tumbler, who’s quivering?
The Louisiana cat

attacked my face
today, and when you

say sleep on it
meaning not on my doorstep

the roach is—ready, aim—
acquire gritty fingertips

beads and beer, bare threads
It’s that time again

crooked aftermath in the
grass, come and smoke some



vi.
Surprise given to latch-key creations, she’ll spark sweet departures.
So enigmatic at the upstart, composition keeps craft. Go lasso new landmarks
and practice your liking. Our collections of ladybugs, older thugs speaking
bravo staccato—each crush doesn’t make the math less wary, doesn’t mean
the mouth meets error in it. Calling sundown and leg up and crackle sit spindle.
City lists like a cemetery, tempting untamed locations. Undecided whether
to rise or ripen, ripsnorting at the red, see how horns pierce the air.
Her thunder stole readiness from buckets and ash talk from slick poles
out-stripping the earth from under us, trashy landings, transient fumbles
and car lots in question. To translate the icon and outwit the beacon.
Seeking solid wings, the urge to breathe build upon.

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