Tunnel of Love
One lumpen hand takes their ticket,
the other pulls a swollen rope
as each couple scrambles into a bobbing
gondola. Bright, soft enamel coats
the rotten wood. Rubber belts
underwater roll them into the cave
of fiberglass ringed in pink mossy hearts,
the smell of fish, strobing cherry flashers.
Boys straddle their dates
on bench seats, grateful for the ride
in a chilled corridor lined with spring-loaded
skeletons and spelunker goblins
that hiss, lurch and send the girls
squirming away from ratcheting
clockwork arms and into a boy's
cagey embrace. Some secret machinery
under the current brings the gondolas back.
The riders teeth and eyes glitter in tawny
carnival light and a barker cajoles them
to take another ride into love's dark mouth.
Illya's Honey, Volume 17, #2, Fall/Winter
One lumpen hand takes their ticket,
the other pulls a swollen rope
as each couple scrambles into a bobbing
gondola. Bright, soft enamel coats
the rotten wood. Rubber belts
underwater roll them into the cave
of fiberglass ringed in pink mossy hearts,
the smell of fish, strobing cherry flashers.
Boys straddle their dates
on bench seats, grateful for the ride
in a chilled corridor lined with spring-loaded
skeletons and spelunker goblins
that hiss, lurch and send the girls
squirming away from ratcheting
clockwork arms and into a boy's
cagey embrace. Some secret machinery
under the current brings the gondolas back.
The riders teeth and eyes glitter in tawny
carnival light and a barker cajoles them
to take another ride into love's dark mouth.
Illya's Honey, Volume 17, #2, Fall/Winter