Cashed in her MFA by Scot Young

I

she wears plaid skirts
knee socks on saturday nights
drinks too much &
lets bald men spank her
for money &
tell her she’s been a bad girl
but there’s enough freaks
to pay the bills
put her kid through college
so she quit writing
poetry
a long time ago

II

on sundays she wears
fishnets to church
sits on the front pew
gives the preacher
a little hell fire
of his own
crosses & slowly recrosses
her legs enough
that he yells
during the children's service
hallelujah
give me an amen
--stays behind the pulpit
until way after
the sermon was over

Scot Young lives with the woman of his dreams and herds goats on a ridge top  farm in the Missouri Ozarks and nothing else is as important.