Parkston: POP. 1432 +2
Every time John's Maroon '82 Chevy
backfired past the sign,
he thought of her.
Passing it nightly
on his way to Sud's Bar.
The "+ 2" was their symbol.
The sign preserved forbidden love.
You and me together.
Forget about everyone else.
Jade's Lakota accent
rings clearly in his memory.
An outcast white world.
Pressure boiled and mixed
with Vicodin and Jack Daniel's.
He cried as they carried her
away in the ambulance.
At Sud's, alone with memory,
his sorrows drown
in pitchers of stale beer.
