Kansas City Airport By Kent Fielding

She sits at the bar

Drinking a beer, empty shot

Glass near her right hand. 

It’s 5 am and she is alone.

Her feet are on a nearby 

stool. Her lips are forming 

The words, “Who the fuck cares.” 

What are these moments – 

The 5 a.m. need for a drink 

In a town she is escaping.

The desire to flee from thought

From emotion, from the man

She has just left with the handwritten

Note: Mark, you are not good 

In bed, you are not good with your hands

On my body or anywhere else.

You are not good at commitment.

Love is about doing things for another

When it is needed.

Even if you don’t 

Want to do those things. 

You don’t know how

To change the oil in a car,

Vacuum or mop a floor, 

Cook an egg. Did we really

Just fall in love conjugating 

Verbs in Latin class?

It’s 2 am and I’m getting 

On a flight in four hours,

And I’m better at saying goodbye

Than you. Remember our old saying,

It is better to drink off a good

Sleep than to meet the day. Remember 

That when you wake, there’s whiskey

In the cabinet. I left shot glasses

On the table. Take care of yourself.

You don’t do that well either.

Here is to two years. Love, 

Rebecca. The bartender is

Still opening for the morning

Breakfast rush and the potential

Bloody-Mary. The girl, Rebecca,

Raises her hand and motions

For another round.  

Kent Fielding – educator, editor, poet, activist – co-founded White Fields Press and the literary renaissance with Ron Whitehead in 1992. Fielding is an Honorary Kentucky Colonel, a BP Teacher of Excellence, an Alaska Teacher of the Year Finalist, 2021 Alaska Speech and Debate Coach of the Year. He has taught in the Marshall Islands, at Jefferson Community College, University of Alaska Southeast, Mt. Edgecumbe, Skagway High School, and at summer institutes in Turkey and Latvia. Author of a book of poetry, Chief Iffuccan, a chapbook, The Revolution is About to Begin, and a broadside “Museums” (Cheek Press 2023), his work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Asheville Poetry Review, The Jefferson Review, Pavement Saw, Modern Haiku, The Beat Scene, Frisk Magazine, Boog Literature, Night Owl Narrative: A Cajun Mutt Rag, and Tidal Echoes, among others.