summertime stings of honey-
suckle & sweet sweet gasoline 
spilt on blacktop

sneakers

O how the hot tin roofs 
glint in harsh sunlight & 
our lovesick hearts answer 

to the creak of slick skin 
stuck to plastic lawn chairs

hey, tell me again how
that puckish grin 
was enough to send you

set you straight 
into the arms of

classic rock radio 

blaring from every passing pickup 
the sedated earth seeding
some needy piano ballad 

with lyrics all too muddled 
to make out

the ditch weeds & reeds 
swaying along 

caught in the crutch 
of an orgasmic electric guitar 

solo

the swell of distant horse-shit & crop-rot
diesel fumes & freshly mown grass

& lo!

how the breeze comes on 
like an afterglow 
hopelessly blue

tragic

lips howling out 
for a man to moon over
i’m saying full-

on bewitched by the tang 
of condensed air 
dripping over carpet

at vfw bingo nights & the peel 
of reeling teenagers on summer 
carnival rides

tell me again about those
backseat creeps 
their pickup beds & sleeper vans 

agile arms stretched out to rest 
over sun-kissed 

shoulders

& cigarette machines pinging away 
in arcade corners like 
slot machines

hey, tell me again 
about his earnest eyes
clear as creek-water 

clear as the ice 
sweating it out 
in my empty 

glass

---

Danielle McMahon is the author of Cold rain in Pittsburgh (Bottlecap Press, 2024), The Oracle’s Voicemail (Alien Buddha Press, 2024), The TV Guide (Alien Buddha Press, 2024) and insecure lovesong (Maverick Duck Press, 2024). Her micro-chap rowhouse song is forthcoming in the 2025 Ghost City Press Summer Series.