Velvet Static She slid in slow through a Marlboro haze Cherry-bomb mouth and them all-night ways Bootheels clicking like a bad idea Down a sawdust floor soaked in Lone Star beer Every eye in the room went crooked and warm Like she carried heat in the eye of a storm And me — I was already halfway bent Off motel ice and coincidence She laughed low Said “baby you got them switchblade nerves Like your mind keeps rolling on the shoulder curve You keep one hand wrapped round the wheel And the other someplace you don’t reveal” She tasted like rain on an oilspill flame Like trouble with a pet-name And every time she leaned in close Streetlights flickered coast to coast You wore me down like a roulette queen Tongue fulla silver and gasoline Had me chasing your taillights through motel blue Not sure if I was inside you or passing through You kept one thigh crossed over the truth One eye cracked for the things unproved And every time I reached for proof You’d unzip another side of you She’d whisper things through the cigarette glow Little backroad riddles only nightfolk know Said “darlin your angels ain’t federal clean They drink top shelf and cause a scene” I said “Baby I hear them payphones sing See codeword smoke in fluorescent things Feel your fingerprints under my skin Even when you ain’t been there since” She grinned sideways — dangerous, slow Like a preacher’s daughter fixing to go Said “Maybe I’m real, maybe I’m spun Maybe I’m the barrel smoke after the gun” And Lord — the way she moved through red neon light Could make a dead man gamble his life Every curve translated three ways deep One for the flesh, two for the freaks Her slip rode north like a highway flare My hands got lost in her raven hair And somewhere outside them eighteen-wheel hymns Were chewing the dark limb by limb You rode shotgun in a fever dream Bare knees shining in the dashboard gleam Had me swearing every road sign knew my name Every motel vacancy burned the same You’d pull me close just to disappear Leave wet lipstick rings on my atmosphere And every time I thought I touched the truth I woke up reaching For the bruise of you
