-sojourner-

not

like Venus

rising, or

the stone of the

Nike. 

not                                          

like Nefertiti

a thousand olives in her skin

and African

jewels 

around her throat, or

no such history

no such myth ––

strike of stone, olive

or amethyst —

but warm-
blooded

she drew my draft of Schlitz
into a pilsner from behind the bar, the white

foam rising, harnessed at the rim
on a winter's night a long, long time ago.

                       

for Linda Bauer, the Del Rio Bar, Ann Arbor