Las Girlfriends

Tip the barmaid in tight jeans.

She’s my friend.

Been to hell and back again.

I’ve been there too.

Girlfriend, I believe in Gandhi.

But some nights nothing says it

quite precise like a Lone Star

cracked on someone’s head.

Last week in this same bar,

kicked a cowboy in the butt

who made a grab for Terry’s ass.

How do I explain, it was all

of Texas I was kicking,

and all our asses on the line.

At Tacoland, Cat flamencoing crazy

circles round the pool

player with the furry tongue.

A warpath of sorts for every

wrong ever wronged us.

And Terry here has her own history.

A bar down the street she can’t

go in, and one downtown. Me,

a French café in Austin

where they don’t say—entrez-vous.

Little Rose of San Antone

is the queen bee of kick-nalga.

When you go out with her,

don’t wear your good clothes.

But the best story is la Bárbara

who runs for the biggest kitchen knife

in the house every bad-ass domestic quarrel.

Points it towards her own heart

like some Aztec priestess gone loca.

¡ME MATO!

I tell you, nights like these,

something bubbles from

the tips of our pointy boots

to the top of our coyote yowl.

Ya’ll wicked mean, a voice at the bar

claims. Naw, not mean. Shit!

Been to hell and back again.

Girl, me too.