Where do Popsickles Go When Dey Die?

(where do popsickles go when dey die?)Or/De SunflowerOnce dere was a small-town Girl.Who used to run barefoot’ddown shoe-beaten pathsDiggin her toes into warm moist’d sandup ‘n down country roads…smilin… More

Turmoil

Richard Knox139-896PO Box 69London, OH 43140TurmoilAs I sit within my cell…within the mess I’ve madeI sense another self inside amused at dreams mislaidDreams and plans—and intentions gone astrayAnd I… More

Rest Home

each morning is the same they wake her she risks a stretch and forecasts rain it is routine she is readied for the wait More

Night Music

Night MusicTonight in Cellblock Threesomeone is playing Mozart.Sweeter than tangerines the music risesabove the sound of all four showersby the guard stationIt is summer at the end of a… More

Pidgin

Patrick O’Neil30832-ABox CWaupun, WI 53963 PidginAgainst the patterned vision I bendstretchLeaning to watchA feathery bird come to mock my untidy cage.Scoot-walking along a windowsill about ten feet away,making strange vanishing… More

3:45

She says / something like this: / A torch, a line of torches, men / in plumber uniforms, in laundry jackets More

Quiet Racism

Quiet RacismNight smiles, walls carved with namesdead and dying, dates past and present,crowding into one, petrified in ageless shit.Silence support the ceiling. The blackhole we see into to seeis… More

Last Call

Last CallDays skipped awaya kid chucking stones across water,happy years gone the way of youth;moved from farm to townand on down the streetto city lights and cheap hotels,dark diveswhere… More

Tapwater Coffee

They took away our coffee pots; You know the type: Big forty-cup, with chrome, The kind you’d never use at home. They said a weapon Potentially lurked there, Were it heaved or water thrown. More