Ode to the World’s Largest Honky Tonk
I stand under forty-two different neon lights that slip off the side
of the saddle-shaped disco ball,
reflecting some part of a southern culture–
A feeling of non-existence:
the flashing lights, the flashing men,
smells of beer, sweat, sour
they fill me up–
not a single person can see me here,
in my chest-to-ankle denim outfit & red leather boots.
Michaela Emerson is a poet, writer, teacher, and editor from Texas. She has an MFA in Poetry and a Certificate of Teaching Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She is the incoming Editor-in–Chief for Frontier Poetry and the former Editor-in-Chief of Lunch Ticket Literary Journal. Her work has appeared in Polemical Magazine, Verses, Lunch Ticket, and elsewhere.