KELLI LAGE
We Crowned Lana Del Rey
and titled her the saint of angelic hymns.
When smoke drove by,
we longed for cherries to balance on our lips
and more interesting men.
What I know now, that I didn’t know then
we were always each other’s National Anthem.
Our radio dials crumbled
when we called this town cinnamon.
We wore house parties as if they were leather jackets
and fanned flames of What Makes Us Girls over our lips.
I used to think we weren’t like those girls in the song,
we put dinner, and sunsets, and midnight drives first.
Then I realized, that is love.
On the floor of your bedroom I whispered
rose-colored wishes to the beat of Ride.
I haven’t curled into your voice since Ultraviolence.
We are now both in our Chemtrails era.
I wish for your hair to be free under all the days of this lifetime
and for all your wolves to bow at your call.
Kelli Lage lives in the Midwest countryside. Lage is currently earning her degree in Secondary English Education and works as a substitute teacher. Awards: Special Award for First-time Entrant, 2020, Iowa Poetry Association.