like kings

by Romy Rhoads Ewing

30 March 2026

i still call it arco arena and i’m still scared of heights that regular who gives us the free tickets put us back in the drunk and disorderly section i think if i left behind trashy exuberance i’d get so homesick it kills me

someone took my favorite seat on the bus but i lived the sunrise through the clouds might as well be mine alone maybe the first nearly overcast day all season muggy but it still counts– i like a love that swallows me– as i sweat through velvet race the train, take what i can get girls like us ask for nothing so girls like us live high on the hog

the leaves on auburn boulevard are changing– pretend, for your own sake and mine, that anything else matters

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about the author

Romy Rhoads Ewing writes from Sacramento, California, where she was born and raised. Her work has appeared in HAD, Oyez Review, Rejection Letters, Bullshit Lit, Major 7th Magazine, and more. She is the author of please stay (Bottlecap Press, 2024) and someday [everybody but] you + i will laugh about all of this (3rd Annual Hallow-Zine Fest, 2025). She edits poetry and nonfiction for JAKE and also runs the archival site SACRAMENTO DIRTBAG ARCHIVES. More can be found at romyrhoadsewing.xyz

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