Artwork © Eric N. Peterson

 

Cup of Ambition

To everyone who made fun of me for listening
to Dolly Parton songs back in high school, I have one
question: When did you become a fan?

In the hours since Dolly left us, I’m struck
by the flood of grief, as if
everyone posting their RIPs fell asleep
listening to Here You Come Again
or sang along to Islands in the Stream.

The entire world seems to be spinning in loss,
this resounding, broken-hearted anthem—
I’m not pouring myself a cup of anything.

I’d rather drive to the nearest Dunkin,
one of four in a three-mile radius,
where the sleepy-eyed woman behind the counter
hands me my Boston cream donut
and pumpkin spice coffee.

The morning smells like a funeral home in fall—
musty like leaves and crushed marigolds.

I grew up listening to Dolly without wearing
a seatbelt in the backseat of my mother’s Buick,
DJ Del Demontreaux of 1050 WHN lulling
me to sleep. My Dolly
was the singer of Two Doors Down
and Hard Candy Christmas.

I don’t know when Dolly became so beloved:
Steel Magnolias, giving a million
dollars to COVID research, mailing
millions of books to children.

I remember pubescent boys snickering
at her titties and the mean girls—mean to me,
at least—turning up their noses at her
butterfly brooches and glittery boots.
My father made fun of her platinum wigs.

I never imagined the song
9 to 5 would serenade Buckingham Palace,
never imagined a song my father hated
would one day signal the Changing of the Guard.

 

Tammy Smith is a social worker from New Jersey. She is winner of the 2026 Four Feathers Press Chapbook Contest. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in ONE ART, Bending Genres, Thimble Literary Magazine, Paterson Literary Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, The New Verse News, and elsewhere. She received honorable mentions in the 2026 New Jersey Poets Prize and the 2026 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards.

Eric N. Peterson is from Atlanta, Ga. He’s been drawing cartoons all his life. He leans towards the absurd, imaginative, and the surreal, as that’s where all the flavor is.