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Audio/Video chapbooks cc&d magazine Down in the Dirt magazine books

 

errol miller




THE DRIFTER TAKES ANOTHER LOOK



We are the usual men in poetry
on a road of battered brassy flutes
for a moment our rubbery skin filled out
like a woman full of sweaty labor
finding ourselves on unruled yellow writing paper
remembering that life is a magnet pulling us
into a studio of burned-out stars and awesome things
in full bloom it seems summer belongs to someone else
on the second floor of a concrete cold-world cavern
in the back room of a tavern filled with alien smells
we are all friends with knives at our throats
sitting down together for communion we spill wine
and watch it dissolve into the dust
one by one we leave the room disgusted
perhaps we should scrub out testicles
hire a stenographer to record the sensation
down the hallway Jason plays his harmonica
he has forgotten the sting of green flies
in his stories bad girls do no wrong
important people live forever on their laurels
but our list of failures is long and grows
each day ballet companies hire our women
they do not speak as they leave
saying goodbye a startling simple act
spending years in bars to train
I think we could break this spell
if only there were a voice
that we could follow
and call our own.



Scars Publications


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