Elegy of a Gothic Cowboy
for Brian Connor
misty eyes saw right through me deliriously tired,
you deliriously high in boots with hollow heels
we blazed, we laughed at messed-up shit
you were a sick sweet maverick, we were kids
when I wanted some you told me not to, not to
even try it and you knew better than anyone
long curling nails punctured your lover’s insides
once, we were genderbending pagan punks
launching silkworms skyward from your black-
brimmed thrift-store hat, in the name of science
you were my companion, you were my gothic
cowboy, you didn’t stop taking what you kept from me
from the far east I dreamt you singing in a sundress and
your mother's cardigan, loved your nonsense loved you still
I was the last to hear it happened and they lied, they always knew you
loved everything, even moths smashing themselves silly, desperate to be fire
link to video
Jae Rossi is a nomadic epicure currently teaching romance languages in the San Francisco Bay Area. They co-founded the Taipei Colorwolf Artist Collective, and spent a year writing in the French countryside. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in The American Aesthetic, Haiku Journal, Three line poetry, and Mad Hat Lit.
