Ode to the World’s Largest Honky Tonk

by Michaela Emerson


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 MagazineVersesLunch Ticket, and elsewhere.