Last Rodeo/Last Dance; Moon Water by Brittany Redd

Last Rodeo//Last Dance

And in the way of dying breeds, the last

of the cowboys burned away like blackened sugar,

his visage framed by flaming prairie, fading to ash. 

The bride and groom sway to the sound of time

standing still, the wind rising as distant stars make

their descent known, burning brighter than

the hope of a new dawn. 

Are you listening? 

It’s like a dream that might be a memory,

or perhaps it was just a dream all along. 

The mind is a fickle thing, it fixates,

forgets, misinterprets.  The foundation is crumbling

and you realize inside these flame-licked yellow walls

that what you thought you knew was never really there. 

The mind is fragile. 

The hills are calling and the whiskey is numbing and you can’t tell

if you are moving fast or slow; it’s all so fuzzy. 

Like the words to a song

that’s been stuck in your head,

except the melody is gone. 

It pushes you on, onward, up

the hills to where you can see more clearly. 

The stars are not stars at all, but more like planets,  

worlds. Drifting, floating like balloons that charted a course

before you were even a concept of a being. 

Moon Water

Window sill collecting dust from bygone days gone better than this

clouds                                                   part to let the light pass over

old pickle jars set aside for nothing in particular this feels

like a longshot

like half-baked birthday wishes on a cake

you didn’t ask for

like daring to dream when someone says “shooting star”

but you didn’t see

maybe, just maybe

it doesn’t need to be complicated to work 

maybe the wire mesh screen doesn’t dull

the shine in any way whatsoever and

maybe the moon hasn’t turned her back on

you after all

you think it at the same time as you realize you probably won’t remember

to do this next month just like

you didn’t last month and yet the word                          maybe 

lingers on the edge of your mind and

you let yourself taste the moon on

tomorrow morning’s coffee as

you close your eyes and blow out the candle