A Ranch Hand is Sleeping in a Greyhound Bus

His dream: a naked woman
growing claws, a naked woman
slicing his tongue in half.

He wakes up and checks the seat
behind his: empty. Outside the window,
stars form a new constellation: a knife
held against a throat.

The Upturned Bowl

of storm clouds drizzles onto her shoulders,
into hog holes. Her daddy’s ruined crops

and her daddy’s fired ranch hand—
his shearing knife,
her jeans torn open.

She lays on her back, on the roots
pigs assume are free.

Jerrod Schwarz is the co-founder of Driftwood Press. His work has appeared in The Fem, Inklette, and others. Jerrod lives in Florida and has been known to start turf wars with alligators who would deny him a refreshing lake swim.