Deborah Tobola

The Muse Gives Instructions to the Bride in Camouflage "Will you marry it, marry it, marry it?" -Sylvia Plath Come by horse. Ride into the wind across Rio Arriba, past Eppie's Blue Spruce Bar, with its bright blue rebar on the windows, and into the village of Abbiquiu. You'll see little mud houses and large bleached skeletons of automobiles. Were you expecting white chickens beside a red wheelbarrow?  You will not find the plumber at the drugstore buying grout or pints of gin. The plumber is wintering in Florida and the drugstore burned down years ago.  Ride past the woman outside Georgia's place scaring cars away.  Ride as if you are married to the wind.  Behind the sign, "Tourist Info, Good Eats," there's a payphone. Dismount. As twilight spreads its deepening lavender bruise, call Ghost Ranch. Someone will come to show you the way.

Copyright © 1999 Deborah Tobola All Rights Reserved

Deborah Tobola has published her work in dozens of literary journals and anthologies, most recently: Poetry Cafe, Pigs 'n Poets, Trains and Rain: Poems of Lust (Rust) and Obsession, Eclectica, The Periodic Table of Poetry, and Clean Sheets.  Awards include Academy of American Poets, three Pushcart nominations, and an Alaska State Council on the Arts fellowship in literature. She lives in Anchorage, where she works as an Arts & Media consultant.