Our Waterloo in Iowa

All we wanted to play was 

Presidents and Assholes. 

Instead, we were handed the latter; 

poker-faced townies at 

the deep end of dive bars, 

jokers on the street 

dealing us false leads, 

Blackhawk fans chirping 

us away from their arena, 

and even the Kum-n-Go clerks 

we asked went bust. 

We got back to the motel 

and asked the attendant,

of course they pull out 

an unopened box with 

gold wrapping still intact, 

but it was already tomorrow 

and the coach bus was 

leaving in a few hours 

so victory of any kind

wouldn’t be in those cards. 

We took defeat laying down,

two dudes to a queen bed,

covered in white sheets.