My Biggest Crush

by Kevin Ridgeway

a yellow Volvo station wagon
plowing through snow-covered streets
a brunette at the wheel

Steely Dan blasting out of the tape deck
baby dolls covering the garbage-
strewn backseat, photographs
of her old boyfriends and their long hair,
a huge pile of dirty bras and panties
and crumpled term papers and
overdue library books
she’s headed for the high school
where she looks up pictures
of dead bodies with her friends
and smokes pot in the van
of a post-grad high school
student, name of Huffy,
she meets people through him,
people who do far worse
things than she, flicking
those hypodermic needles
in a frenzy for numbness

she rides her Volvo back
home to her house in the
vacant wilderness hamlet
and reads Oscar Wilde,
her cat tickling
her feet as she laughs,
refusing to be misrepresented

(Originally appeared in Bop Dead City)