by Jacklin Farley
After Beholding the Stains on My PBR Can
My beloved whispers against
my bare, open neck – “I want
your lipstick on everything” –
then examines my sleek aluminum
cylinder again under the dive bar
fairy lights, as if it were some
rare mineral specimen or elusive
icon of unparalleled archeological
import. My paisley-print denim
mini skirt dampening beneath me,
I concede it’s at least the second
hottest thing that anyone has ever
said to me. The third hottest thing
was when we were in Phoenix
visiting my family, and we drove
out along the lettuce fields, past
a string of rustic roadside stands
and he pointed at a plywood sign
leaned up against a milk crate and
he called me his “raw local honey,”
which is fucking corny as hell, but
the gesture hogties me like a summer
-hot sow, like I could chug a gallon
of classic Country Time Lemonade
and my heart’d still burn with the fury
of a thousand check-engine lights
blinking all the way down to hell
because it’s not just what comes out
of his mouth. It’s also love bites taken
from my legs, my knuckles, and other
places. Because the #1 hottest thing
he’s ever said to me was: “I’m not
religious, but if God is real, she lives
in your pussy,” before describing me
as a chapel, the chosen worship site
for a recovering catholic, a promised
land, a mango full of nectar, dribbling
juice down his chin. Imagine someone
loving you that much, or what it’s like
to love them back. I fall off the bone
at his touch. I could swallow him whole
like a wad of Juicy Fruit, wedge him
away in my small intestine for seven
years or longer, like the vain hope
for a God, like a mouthful of tongue.
Poet Jacklin Farley (she/they) holds an MFA in Poetry from Florida State University, where they served as Online Editor for the Southeast Review. Their work has most recently appeared / is forthcoming in The McNeese Review, Aquifer: The Florida Review Online, Blood Orange Review, Diode Poetry Journal, Moon City Review, and other places. They’re working on their first full-length manuscript. You can find them on Bluesky and follow them on Instagram @svvanhilda.
Artist Shane Allison (he/him) is the author of five collections of poetry. His collection “Turbulent” being his most recent from Hysterical Books, as well as “Remembered Men” from Ranger Press. His artwork have graced the covers of Salamander and Cream City Review. Shane is at work on a new collection and lives in Tallahassee, Florida unfortunately.
Gulf Stream Magazine 