jersey poet
after Damian Rucci

a jersey poet
says you know you’ve got the audience
when someone wants to stab you in the gut
just for doing your job

bleed black onto shag carpet
with cigarette ashes, domestic beer,
someone’s phony service dog,
and the woe of hopeful poets
dying to become like the older poets
who don’t bother with hope at all

he says let the girl from
a hippie van commune
sew your wounds shut
with her shoelaces

chicks love a scar and a good story
or a bad story told really well

————————

a tiny cage

the screen is dirty
the window too, but still
the gentle breeze
swaying August leaves

Noah told me
don’t focus
on the screen
if you’re looking
for magic,
or beauty,
or anything
that’s not
a tiny cage