unrequited love letter to a stranger

Dear you, you in the mud,

of blue-striped sleeves, controlled curls,

of campy remarks and hand motions,

you can imagine him spending hours

smoking cigarettes behind a bar in Alaska

before realizing the bar is abandoned

and moving onto a fishing boat,

spending months at sea without a shower,

saturated in sweat and saltwater,

doused in rum and ginger ale.

And that’s really all it takes.