Mariah Evans
Mariah is an emerging poet who grew up in the mountains of Colorado and now lives on the Oklahoma prairie. A former educator, she brings an observant and reflective perspective to her writing, exploring the delicate balance and commonality between humanity and the natural world. Mariah’s poem Comets was recently featured in the Offerings exhibit at the Thomas K. McKeon’s Center for Creativity.
Vacancy at the Kangaroo Rat Hotel
The doors are locked. Coats
left on hooks in the squat
adobe house in the desert.
We pay the electricity bill
though no one turns on the lights.
The only neighbors: kangaroo
rats and the horizon.
The house narrows its
eyes in my direction
eyes that know I am
not a good daughter.
The kangaroo rats
call me deadbeat.
Years back, that name
was hissed in hushed
tones about the father.
Whispered behind the bony
hands of my mother’s sisters,
over the rounded shoulders
of grown-up cousins.
But all is forgotten, forgiven in death.
Deadbeat.
The title passed down to me
with his brown eyes
the adobe house.
the rattlesnakes.
and the kangaroo rats.
Your parents will die,
you ungrateful little shits.
They will die.
They will die,
and you will not be ready.
They will leave drawers
of hastily folded clothes that still
smell of laundry detergent.
A dirty coffee cup in the sink. A fork.
They will die and you will be left
to clean out the cabinets.
scrub the dirty bathtub.
peel the photographs
from the face of the fridge.
My father had horses
at the little adobe house.
When he pulled into his gate
the backseat packed with groceries
in their plastic bags
he had to close the car door
in-between trips to the kitchen.
If he didn’t, the horses
would get into the food.
Would stretch their muscular
necks into the back seat.
Snuffle their velvet muzzles
into the bags. Apples eaten up.
Cheerio box chewed
and lying in the dirt.
I don't know who you
and I are supposed to be
in this story. The apples,
the horses, the rats.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
© 2025 Iron Oak Editions
Stay Connected to Our Literary Community. Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Image by Mariah Evans
Listen:
