Issue 6: Alyse Bensel

by Paula Lietz

While Waiting for an Oil Change

A television blares debates on oil, food prices.

Spend like it’s 2007, the headline pops.

Phones ring at the front desk. The technician answers

each with “It’s a great day at Tires Plus.”

A grey-haired man takes a seat beside me,

smiling, sighs “You come in for a 35-dollar job

and 1,000 dollars later you leave.”

Jason says I have a torn brake-line, an oil leak,

more replacing. He leads me through the shop,

yelling “Watch your language boys!” He points

to the tear, the leak. I nod, pretend like I know

what car parts they mean. Back in the waiting room,

people pray on the television screen while I try

to calculate the cost – labor spent, labor lost.

We Pretend Like We Lounge Naked in the Grass Every Day

Tipsy on boxed wine,

I am impatient—

beside me, Emily bites her nails.

Erica fumbles brass buttons

on her low-cut jeans.

Here, in the quiet before

frat boys, girls painted like forest floors

begin the yearly descent

to the flagpole. I soak my fingers

in night dew, lean back

to spot hazy stars.

Emily stands up,

sprints downhill to the flagpole.

The lampposts

give off faint light

in early morning fog.

Her body’s shadow,

highlights of white skin.

I follow her, then Erica.

Three lone naked girls for a moment,

then joined by frat boys holding

lukewarm cans of Natty Ice.

We introduce ourselves, polite,

eyes staring straight ahead.

Soon the rest, spectators before,

now descend the brick stairs, small hills.

What was once a whisper is now a jumble

of laughter, of screams while we jump

and run in midnight dark.

Alyse Bensel, a native of Pennsylvania, currently resides in State College, PA, while pursuing her MFA in poetry at Penn State. When not engaged in her teaching and studies, she works at non-profit art organizations and for a work-share program at a local CSA. Her poetry has appeared in The Meadowland Review, and her book reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Newpages, Rain Taxi, MAKE Literary Magazine, CALYX, EOAGH, Coldfront, and on WPSU radio.

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