Dirty Sixth

Dirty Sixth
read by Melanie Alberts

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.



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