"Between States" by Leslie Lindsay
Weston Leo Richey | Cloud Number 9
at my best I drink the faggot-pink cocktail;
cosmo you giggle; cosmopolitan I tell
the bartender; in the light I am a man
of means; a starry-eyed citizen of the whole
world; I am earnest how a skewer bends
through vermouth to jab the tight, round
olive; I yearn as the rim of a glass thins
toward your gentle lips; I dance with you
goofy-footed on the mosaic moon; I croon
karaoke to the haze of faces kissing obscure
in bathroom stalls; when I am well I could hold
you where you are fullest; where flush smears
your soft into a sunset; in the sky of my insides
it’s all sugar & fruit; my bright little drink
make me as sexy as you; no make me worth
the fifteen dollars; no make me belong
to somebody; no make me wide like the circle
of my life; like the napkin I use as a coaster
when we get ready to leave; make me see
this moment is a coat of many colors; yes
make me brave enough to wear it
cosmo you giggle; cosmopolitan I tell
the bartender; in the light I am a man
of means; a starry-eyed citizen of the whole
world; I am earnest how a skewer bends
through vermouth to jab the tight, round
olive; I yearn as the rim of a glass thins
toward your gentle lips; I dance with you
goofy-footed on the mosaic moon; I croon
karaoke to the haze of faces kissing obscure
in bathroom stalls; when I am well I could hold
you where you are fullest; where flush smears
your soft into a sunset; in the sky of my insides
it’s all sugar & fruit; my bright little drink
make me as sexy as you; no make me worth
the fifteen dollars; no make me belong
to somebody; no make me wide like the circle
of my life; like the napkin I use as a coaster
when we get ready to leave; make me see
this moment is a coat of many colors; yes
make me brave enough to wear it
Weston Leo Richey is a writer, poet, and PhD candidate in English at The University of Texas at Austin. They hold an MFA in creative writing from Rutgers University - Newark. Weston's work has appeared previously in Grist, Pigeon Pages, Strange Horizons, and elsewhere.
Leslie Lindsay’s work has been published in various literary and art journals, including: Up the Staircase Quarterly (cover art), Another Chicago Magazine (ACM), Wild Roof Journal, Spring-Summer, Brushfire Arts & Literature, The Closed Eye Open, Tiferet Journal, Mud Season Review, Western Michigan Review, Fall 2023, and On the Seawall, Model Home: A Study Under Compression, a photo essay in miniature, April 2023.
