Arthur Graham’s Reviews > HSTQ: Summer 2024 > Status Update

It's just paper, use it up
like the years of your life
fill the pages, burn up half
forget the rest

Dave put me in the passenger seat
and watched beady eyed from back seat
as I coaxed the fat old truck driver
for twenty bucks
he pulled over a mile before our stop
and said nothin comes for free, toots
as he unzipped his fly

we’ll strip naked
and we’ll crawl back to what’s left of the garden
and ask the snake
where in the hell did we get it wrong?

I had a dream –
I was in a three way with Sylvia Plath
and Anne Sexton.
Nirvana played on the radio.
Ernest Hemingway stood in the darkest corner
of the room.
He was holding a camera
but he was filming himself and not us.
The camera was shaped like a shotgun.

I failed at suicide three times,
trying to make it look accidental,
so my lady and kid could collect

When the police came
she held out her arms to receive the cuffs
glowing for the gathered crowd.