every day i recieve 3-5 rejection emails
from various dream jobs and literary magazines
and people who could give me a career.
im desensitized to digital rejection
theres no way id be so flippant if they said it to my face.
i'll get something someday
i hope
he was on his phone
she snatched it away from him.
never forgive her.
need to check that phone.
im scared that its my father.
but i cant be bad.
youve got red hair, she
told me. i told her i know.
stop being so mean.
my bottle has mold.
the ceilings have even more.
i can feel it now.
one solitary moral man
the sheriff of an old western town.
he got away on a long shot
nobody expected him to get out.
but a gun in his belt kept him safe from the mob
and when he started running he didn't stop.
he paused at a pond for some water
got on his knees and dropped his holster.
splashed some cold water against his face
began to get up but felt a cold metal plate.
a slab of metal held against his head
by a man whose face he couldn't read.
he handed him a cigarette, hand rolled
to save his head, but the man was cold
he lifted the slab above his left shoulder
and whipped him,
cracking his noggin.
goodbye moral man,
may you never come home.
I was consumed by the white lines of the I-91
When we drove north through mountainous slush.
The clouds were the same silver as the asphalt
I could smell gasoline leaking out of the tank.
The birches were barren when we traveled so far that day.
While I was driving, she was tracing the veins
Of her hand. They looked like splintering branches.
The birch's limbs were weighed down by snow.
I told her about the time I skidded on a patch of ice
And crashed into a snowbank just beyond the breakdown lane.
She said the intersection between the road and the trees that frame it
Was a valley that she’d like to park her car in one day.
We saw three moose crossing signs on our drive.
I'd never seen a moose. She told me they’re larger than I’d expect.
There was a middle school behind the highway barrier.
It was mid-afternoon when we passed it,
Kids were lining up in a single file to leave.
One by one, the children crossed the road to get home.
A police cruiser was planted in the median
Holding out a radar gun, prepared to open fire.
His sedan had tinted windows.
She told me it was for the children’s safety.
We soon pulled over in a snow-dusted parking lot
To refill the wiper fluid and stretch our legs.
She pointed out that the car next to us had no driver,
Just a teenager asleep in the passenger seat.
In the woods behind us, she saw a moose.
It was bigger than I could have ever imagined.
My OCD nightmare came true the other night.
I was away from home. It was late at night. I was far away. I realized that
If my house burned down
Which is something that might happen
I wouldn’t save anything.
It would be from my hair straightener
Or my candle. Or a burner on the stove
I forgot to switch off. I hope it will burn
Quick, not take anything out with it.
Id want to watch it drift to ashes
After being engulfed in flames.
Id want to take a piece of the floor with me,
Slanted in all its glory,
Smelling of old beer and stomped out ash
Id grind it up and sprinkle it over a smoothie.
every day i recieve 3-5 rejection emails from various dream jobs and literary magazines and people who could give me a career. im desensiti...
