Huitain for Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

by Lizzy Ke Polishan

   We wander between strange   stalls: an ink wash
of wonky stripes—strung with  blinking white lights—
   selling absinthe   to crowded kids, a swash

of howls. A bearded      lady slinks in tights—
   all clichés    & cages. These nothing nights—
pennies sunken         in a bowl. Something lost—

   a poison apple missing   a few bites.
I can’t remember—how much   did it cost.

Lizzy Ke Polishan is a poet from Pennsylvania. Her recent work appears in Gulf Coast, The Greensboro Review, RHINO, The Penn Review, and PRISM International, among others. She is a poetry reader for Palette and Psaltery & Lyre and the author of the poetry collection A Little Book of Blooms.