Come Back to Arizona
Wes Civilz
COME BACK TO ARIZONA
You’re going to die;
I’m going to die
Yes, you are going to die and
I am going to die, so come back,
my love, now, to Arizona
Come back to Arizona,
where I will have a lemonade stand
up and running before you arrive
All day here in the great western desert
we will sell lemonade together
We will sell it all weekend,
all weekend long in the nude
We even will have sex while we sell it
But listen—no one will get mad
But listen—we will live as if in an alternate world
where no one will get furious;
no one will claim obscenity;
no one will say the local children were damaged
by the outrageous sight of our love
A policeman will arrive—
but just to buy lemonade
*
Each day in Arizona
I’ll pull your clothes from you
like an ear of corn shucked
We will make babies, hundreds
of babies, could be
thousands, they will sprout
from the river plain
of your impossible body
already walking and talking
Some will die;
some will rule the world
*
You will be hypnotically fat,
you’ll be a mountain topped with cool snow
gazed up at from a hot summer day below
I will assume a lesser role,
I will admire from afar
I will be a pond in the valley
gazing up shyly at you,
you the avalanche, you
the thunder and voluptuous stone
You can find Wes Civilz on IG:@wes_civilz


This poem is deeply
A deeply troubling work