Hugs in the Land of the Free

 

Brian Beatty

Originally published in The Evergreen Review Issue 121 in December, 2009.
 

I’m a hot jazz drum solo.

You’re an adjustable 
wrench cast in cool iron.

Our unlikely romance 
is redder, whiter & bluer

than the last American 
flag — as if it’s on drugs.

The AM radio weather 
reporter has lied again.

So much for imagining 
threesome sex with her.

Far from learning to settle 
into the familiar we may be,

but this is not a Motel 6.