'Lessons Of Mucous-Coated Throats'

Lessons of Mucous-Coated Throats (and other things I learned along the way)

By: Alexandra Gauss
~

5:30 a.m.

Need coffee immediately.

     Dave listens to sports radio all the way to Dallas.
We all have coughs.

11:30 a.m.

Am I the only one getting hungry?
      Julie reads a sign and mispronounces
             Chicago. We erupt with laughter.
Cough.

9:42 p.m.

Finally on the ranch in Fort Stockton.
             We’re only 2 hours from Mexico?
                  I wish I was in Mexico.
Cough.

8:36 a.m.

“Wake up, city girl, You can help me skin the deer Katie shot in the head
          last night.
               Har Har Har.”
Cough.

6:45 p.m.

Electricity cuts out during dinner.
        In the dark, Katie tells us stories of all the
                          times she has seen maggots.
Cough. Cough.

3:15 p.m.

Dale shows me the baby crib in the attic that
           once belonged to George Bush.
                        We run out of Dr. Pepper.
Cough.

6:05 p.m.

Dusk is slingshotted across the horizon.
      On the way to Cafe Amigo, there is a billboard says
              “We need to talk. –God”
Cough.

6:25 p.m.

Dave and Dale compete with story telling and ignore the Latina waitress
              when she asks us how the food tastes.
                        I get salsa in my hair.
And cough.

8:15 a.m.

Pass the border into New Mexico. What would I do if I lived here? Sit
       against the fence post with my grandmother’s typewriter and a glass of  sweet tea.
   Mom says over the phone
 “Don’t forget to see the turquoise people when
                          you get to Santa Fe.”
                     God, I miss her.
Cough.
~
Alexandra is a graduating senior at Pace University. She majored in English with a focus on Writing. She also minored in Creative Writing & Fine Arts. O, and Alexandra is a Texan, who now resides in New York. I know, it's cool.
(This poem is also in the 50th edition of Aphros.) (Pace's Literary Mag.)