~ Delta Poetry Review ~

Justin Lacour

Metairie

At the end of “Red House”

Jimi Hendrix concludes “If my baby don’t love me no more

I know her sister will”

and i’m like look it doesn’t always work that way

i don’t want to talk about it

you’re just going to have to trust me

i can do this trick where i balance

a needle on my eyelashes

and during the lost war

my soon to be ex college girlfriend

shoveled popcorn at the art house theater

that summer we went to see The Saragossa Manuscript

with her glittery older sister

a story within a story within a story within a story

i thought it might go on forever

i remember the black and white film

lighting up the sister’s face like her ghost

was leaking out

i’ve done nothing but watch movies

and my face never shined like hers

i remember how the air felt heavy the stars

the silent drive back to the suburbs

and how when i got home

my paw paw announced the only way

he’s leaving Metairie is in a pine box

Justin Lacour lives in New Orleans and edits Trampoline: A Journal of Poetry. His first full-length collection of poetry, A Reading from the Book of Panic, was recently published by Lavender Ink.