Dirty Sixth

Melanie Alberts

September 22, 2021

Austin’s Dirty Sixth

street drowns in deep blues—

blocks away, on the lake

fireflies light up

blink—wait—blink

Bullfrogs gossip

deeply bellowing—they carry

a tune only for her

in a bed of mud, spent

latex and cigarette butts

Her legs delicious

with rain—glistening

a sudden downfall

of delight

accepting everything

She tells herself

silent love stories

falls asleep to a single 

light burning

blink—wait—blink

NOPE 

shines in neon over

a Dirty Sixth door—still, he pulls—

every door all his life opens 

like a fist letting go

Writer and psychic artist Melanie Alberts works at the University of Texas at Austin. Her non-fiction and poetry have appeared in the Ransom Center Magazine, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Wisteria: A Journal of Haiku, Senryu, and Tanka, and other journals.