An America—by Sara Eddy

Give me an America of picnic tables, 
ice cream, jimmies, chocolate dip.
Give me an America of students 
gone home for summer, locals strolling
quietly as evening cools off, the pavement 
still sun-warm, ticking.

Give me an America of migrant farm workers 
picking cucumbers and falling in love, 
chatting at the next table 
about sublets and beer.  Pay them
what they’ve earned for welted hands, 
sunburned necks, faces traced with soil-lines.

Make my America light up like neon 
on Sunday nights in August
when the sound of engines recedes 
and the Miss Flo closes up.

Put in your last order.  Make it a large.  Tip the server for her patience,
for her far-away heart, for her tired, sticky American beauty.

~

Sara Eddy is author of two chapbooks: Tell the Bees (A3 Press) and Full Mouth (Finishing Line). Her poems have appeared in many journals, including Threepenny Review, Pink Panther, and Raleigh Review. She is Assistant Director of the writing center at Smith College, and lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Published by laurenalwan