Robin Arble

Ginger’s Bar

Dumb tranny dyke bitch.
—Man on West 23rd and 9th

dyke summer brownstone summer

ACs hum-buzzing

in the cool blue heat slipped
spaghetti straps sweetening

sweat my love licks off
the freckles of my shoulder slow

leaves and panic flashes neon
sneakers on telephone wires summer

of flattening skylines last dream lost
in the first thought of the day

summer of shoplifted lunches
summer of my walls breathing deep

as she pushes in me screen door
porch in each backyard frozen Cokes

in the Burger King parking lot
summer of shaved armpits summer

of making and losing no money the day
you kissed me in the walk-in sculpture

sleepless summer fuck it summer
summer I kept living Michael Nau

in the cool car drenched nights
at the dyke bars all our bodies

gasping on the dance floor

Robin's poems have appeared in 2River, beestung, Passages North, and Poetry Online, among others. She studied literature and writing at Hampshire College and lives in New York. https://linktr.ee/arblerobin