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Song for Cali Girls - Dahlia Rhodes

In dark rooms, girls like neon fish flashing grins

loathing the predictability of the sun,

like being dealt the same cards every day.

Sometimes they just want to burrow under

the bedsheets, wearing full makeup---

They will take the darkness as a lover.

Sometimes every other house another girl

infinite gallery of black butterflies pinned to

windows' hypnotic moon. Verde luna, mal barrio.

Cali girl, she waits for the boom-boom car

to take off into the underage sunset.

I'm telling you homegirl, la maldicion

is for real. You don't believe me?

On Friday a car is going to stop on the corner

and you're gonna get jumped so bad

your ass is gonna get knocked into next week.

The rain from the Pacific

quivers and silvers the windows.

The bells of the church

ring the hour of stars and restless breezes.

We're never leaving this place

broken hearts asleep in immense night

where we retrace our steps in a labyrinth of solitude.

 

Dahlia Rhodes lives in the SF Bay Area. Her fiction has appeared in Black Scat Review, and her poetry in Arsenic Lobster and Bitterzoet.

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