returning home

by Dee P. R. Kay

El Capitan got the better of me,

and I retreated to the beer barn in El Paso

the bartender in Marfa,

the one with the eye patch,

who knew the exact temp at which Cokes explode?

bar’s closed, and he ain’t making Micheladas no more

Terlingua’s a ghost town with three tongues

RVs and casitas litter the landscape

Sotol and scrub

mercury mined-out

the sun set on the Sierra del Carmen

blazing like a funeral pyre

the Rio Grande a watery grave

BIO: Dee lives and writes on the Gulf Coast with his two daughters. His first novel, We Dat, was published 2025. Dee has been published in Blood+Honey, BULL, and ExPat. His handle on socials is @dee_p_r_kay