Benson, Arizona

by Harvey J. Baine

barbecued emu, ostrich,
pickled chicken eggs,
wings and buffalo
tongue at the Horse Shoe
Cafe where Tammy
Wynette and Nancy
Sinatra are still on
the juke box D – l –V
O –R –C –E, Sugartown,
and Danielle’s blue – gray
painted eyes all of
Cochise County has seen.

as the streets go cool
and blurred with evening
and the earth’s slow spin
becomes visible,
holding hands, two women
lazily round a corner
under lamplight wading
through the broken music,
as two minds united by
the orange afternoon.

above Benson
at the Skywatch Inn
through battleship
glasses we watched
the swift, violent moon,
bigger than mountains rise,
and set fire to the world.