Poetry By Yi-Wen Huang

​Gallup, NM, January 1, 2013—Happy New Year!

We’re always stuck in Gallup during New Years
the hotels in Vegas are cheap before X-mas
we leave once the grades are in and drive back on X-mas eve

It’s not like First Night back East
a celebration
walking through the cultural district
to multiple performances and gallery crawl
the PSO, Attack Theatre
and a gay Cabaret performer, souling out on Billy Joel on the piano
The Piano Man and My Life
a whole night of vintage movie trailers at the Harris Theater

la prima espresso,
Salonika’s gyros and fries across from the Arthur Murray dance studio
Get two because you’re never down here.
You always rush out of the Strip district before 3 because your high school friend got towed once,
and you always eat your Mancini Pepperoni Rolls before you even make it to the Fort Pitt Bridge.

In Gallup, a lot of people stay in to avoid the drunk drivers.

We went to the casino once and had a great time
we made reservations and had a table with a balloon and a name tag orange wristbands
small steaks and lobster tails the size of a brain, lobster bisque pot pies
and a buffet
Han made egg rolls, baos, and pan-fried dumplings
and brought in  high end pastries, fruit tarts, cheesecakes, chocolate pyramids
The James Douglas show funked us out to the point where
we forgot where we were
after the countdown, Tom went for a last chocolate pyramid and a fruit tart for me
setting off a free Native stampede

New Year’s Day 2013 was uneventful
Tom ate Arby’s he bought the day before and listened to the Ode to Joy
until we took a ride and a roadside glonnie walker flipped us off
Happy New Year!
I knew in a week, when I checked my e-mail, I’d be flipped off by another glonnie--
this one, blonde!


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Bio: Dr. Yi-Wen Huang is from Taiwan and an Associate Professor of English and Linguistics at University of New Mexico-Gallup.  She lived and attended universities in Long Island, NY and Pittsburgh, PA.  Her research focuses on language and affect.  Her hobbies include zumba, spinning, thrift shopping, edm, and traveling as a foodie and tea aficionado.