Haley Laningham was a finalist in Narrative’s Sixteenth Annual Poetry Contest. She earned an MFA in poetry from the University of Oregon and is a PhD candidate in poetry at Florida State University. Originally from Fresno, California, she lives in Tallahassee, Florida.

Man with a Gun and a Girlfriend

by Haley Laningham

There’s a gun in the car

as he drives me to the public land.

There I am in a prairie dress

because he likes when I’m covered.

His loyal dog flicks her snout

at the desperate insects flying in.

We park by a makeshift shooting range.

I made him mad again last night.

The ’90s television hauled there

for a target trembles without speech.

When I was a child I once

People on couch
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