Desire Lines

Desire Lines includes 23 new poems and poetry gleaned from five previous collections. Haskins's poetry is rich with historic voices and musical riffs. Poetry to be spoken and sung, as well as read.

El Grito de Dolores

A bus passes.
I drink its sweet black air.
THe bus jumped the curb, cornering.
The bus slammed through the potholes.
I want to do that too.
With my rearview mirror hung with saints.
With my radio blaring Guadalajara.
As if it were always night and I drunk
banging through the unlit streets
past the bars with their half-doors
past the tequila factory
past Tlaquepaque rattling fast
in the wrong lane. You Martin
with your macho fists. You with your
wet lips. Get off the road.

Lola Haskins is a graduate of Stanford University and teaches computer science at the University of Florida. She lives on a farm outside Gainesville. She is the author of six collections of poetry, and is the recipient of the Iowa Poetry Prize, the Edwin Ford Piper Poetry Award, and an NEA fellowship.