Girls Named for Flowers | Melissa Queen

  Melissa Queen studied poetry at Ohio University and Western Washington University. Her poems have appeared in the journals Green Mountains Review, Hobart, RATTLE, Spoon River Poetry Review, and others. Additional work in other genres has appeared in the journals Alimentum, Quarter After Eight, and The Rumpus. She lives in eastern Washington where she teaches at Walla Walla University and Walla Walla Community College. In addition to writing and teaching, she also skates roller derby under the alias “Queen Greatest Hits.” Check out her work at www.aperfectbind.wordpress.com     At First RainWe were vultures there among the sage, coyotes who hunted neighborhood pets in packs. We made nests there among the broken glass and groves of Russian olives.We smiled at the sun. Our teeth were made of magnifying glass. Under the moon, moths bounced in headlights, the stereo howled, and empty bottles scraped across truck beds.I taste the film of him on my teeth. His mouth was a rain barrel— damp d