Scoundrel Time

Casino in Coharie Nation

Around a hairpin turn, not quite hidden
inside a forest that has been trampled
for tourism, strip malls disguised as native
villages, façades of man-made wood, green
confetti like grass littering the parking lot,
wind catchers and arrows, tiny teepees
and turquoise bracelets in makeshift stores:
and pamphlets on any flat surface, Ten Signs

of Diabetes you Should Know; it rises
from a vast plain, leveled and treeless –
this dazzling and misplaced fortress, as if
from a fairy tale, where commoners
become kings and queens, and tattooed valets
in Air Jordans park rusted out Chevrolets.