For the Third Time in a Row, the Taco Bell in Elizabethton, TN, Messes Up My Order

By Andrew Lee Butler

Hey, yes, could I get that one feeling: whatever it is

I think I’ll find in rainy nights

stretched astigmatically thin,

a $5 Chalupa staining car seats and glossing

the pavement with puddles

of greasy streetlight. This

Cravings Box could be different, though.

A new night. A novel route.

The sky’s drawn shade illuminated

with Baja Blast and blooming with fresh

configurations of neon. I return

a third time to Lethe’s lime-lit shore

to drink, but I’d like to tarry in the gravel of its nearest

bank and behold a liminal eddy,

accompanied by the psychopomp of

a soft shell instead of tomorrow’s morning. But no one comes

upon the same river twice. Sometimes

the world gets the order wrong: places

a crunchy taco you didn’t want in the bag you receive.

But take another bite. What you ask for

isn’t always what you need

and that’s all.

About the Author

Andrew Lee Butler is a writer from Northeast Tennessee. He currently teaches writing at the University of Tennessee, where he recently completed his Ph.D. in Creative Writing and English.