Tyler Lemley
Red Eyes and Rock Radio
Now playing: Lodi by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Nighttime car ride down Austin Hwy,
a no seatbelt chime keeping time.
His cologne smells like saltwater-soaked skin.
He drums the wheel and bobs his head
to the guitar interlude. He tries to sing along,
it’s bad, but I don’t mind.
We’re high. And on our way to dinner.
He likes wings, I don’t, but I don’t mind.
I’ll suffer the buffalo sauce and soiled hands.
The darkness outside the window
transports us to our own universe.
Just me, my drummer, his cologne,
and my dad’s favorite rock band.
He grips the gear shift,
and I imagine it’s my thigh.
Now playing: You Make Loving Fun, Fleetwood Mac
There was a pregame where we played
beer pong. One on One. Eye to Eye.
I won so he owed me Whataburger.
As we walked to meet the delivery driver,
he told me I was the cutest boy at the party
then skipped ahead, cowboy boots clacking concrete.
On the elevator his girlfriend called.
Now playing: Georgia Peach, Lynyrd Skynyrd
His cheeks are ripe peaches
waiting for my teeth to breach his skin.
But I bite my lip instead.
It’s all I can do to keep myself from tasting him,
because we slow danced to Tennessee Whiskey
when we were drunk at the bar
and his hands were made for my hips
and his eyes look like his cologne smells
and I almost dove into them
and bathed in those silver springs—
but the music stopped too soon.
Now playing: I’d Have You Anytime, George Harrison
One day I think he’ll hold me
the way you hold a river stone
whose glistening gold caught the sun
in just the right way, so you just had to pick it up.
Oh, to be skipped on the water.
My favorite picture on my phone
is me sitting in his lap smoking a joint
and my eyes are swimming in those silver springs
and he’s grinning so wide it looks like I’ll fall in,
and in the universe of this picture no one else exists
but me, my drummer, and mary jane cascading to the sky.
Tyler Lemley is a recent graduate of the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Tx where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts and English. Tyler writes from the perspective of a queer person from a small Texas town grappling with love and belonging. He has been published in the Quirk literary journal and has work forthcoming in The Tusculum Review, Voices de la Luna, and The Main Street Rag.
