2011 Issue - Santa Fe Community College

Ugly Hat & Red Hook
by Sean Brendan-Brown
You need a night at Hofbräuhaus
one block down from Shenanigan’s
where fish shops gas the evening
and squash-headed wharf rats screech
at feral cats. It’s beautiful
staring through pitchers of Red Hook
two jiggers of Ugly Hat in one hand
a shot of Oso Negro in the other—
alone on the deck in drizzle,
pretending the few lights at St. Regis
are flickering candles. Lions
roar from Point Defiance zoo—
something always sets them off
then peacocks cry e-awk! e-awk!
Christ what a sound—maybe Ted Bundy’s
ghost, drifting in rain and fog by the gift shop,
disturbs them. That’s where he’d stand
sniffing chowder and watching girls.
Animals know.
From the restaurant side someone
coos “pretty like nice little”; what’s it mean
You’ve been away too long. Through glassbrick,
seafall, beerglass voices describe new & old
wars, fresh baby purpling as they speak. Its holder
unfastens the left flap of a nursing bra, pulls
pink nipple forward, milk pearling her fingertips:
pretty like nice little.
Beautiful, baby in the bar, waves swishing
under the deck, tide slapping barnacled posts
as blue crabs drop from rocks plop! The odors
of diesel, offal, and mudflat rot fill you up.
Lions roar, peacocks answer.
Santa Fe Literary Review 109