Denver Women Are All Butch

You find them hiking mountain trails

or passing on the left at the grocery store,

with the same determination.

Fleeting eye contact and a quick smile,

they know how to side-step your hippie psychology.

They monitor your neighborhood bike trail with a curt sigh,

edging you and your leashed dog to one side.

They are black and brown mamas with big families

taking over city parks, I look on with envy.

Sixteenth Avenue executives in tight skirts and floral blouses

pounding the glass ceilings of Fortune 500s.

They’ll all tell you they’re from Colorado,

claiming the whole of the state.

Sturdy gals with made-up eyes

and mid-length bobs,

who can just as easily dig you out of a snow bank

as whip up a casserole.

You can only spot the lesbians

by their cowboy boots.