Gunshots Under Golden Arches

Traveling to the Tragic Kingdom

We stop for sustenance

Under Golden Arches.

All I want is a burger and an

Icy soda, I can almost taste

The sticky-sweet liquid fizz.

I join the line–it's long

Despite the hour,

The street bathed

In blue moonlight

Shining from a recent rain.

I fall,

and nearly drop my meal

When we hear staccato gunshots,

Too close,

Only a block away.

Tires squeal as patrons flee

But my vehicle is gone.

I run inside the restaurant

Where I cower with others,

Hands clasped while we

Wait in sacred silence

For bullets to

Burst through glass

And tear our world apart…

...OOO...

Cut to a dark room,

And a beautiful Woman in Red,

We move in unison, and

I'm kissing her as we lay entwined,

Our bodies pressed

Together, the fear and guns

Forgotten, (though my heartbeat

pounds as hard, harder still)

and I am falling as she fills

My senses, feather-soft and warm

Beneath me, wrapped

Around my waist,

My hands catch in

The shimmering strands of her

Hair, I try not to

Pull too much, but I am

Losing control, my

Head spins, dizzy from

The amber scent of her…

...OOO...

I wake alone in twisted sheets

With an echo of drumbeats and

The honeyed taste of lips on mine.