2026, everyday words, Ohio River Valley Literature, poetry, the no-scape

The neanderthal finds scrap paper and loathing

Is this what a bird feels like remembering how to fly? Is this what a fish feels like remembering how to swim?

Jimi Hendrix on the cassette, pencil in hand, coffee and an apple. Organizing (or shuffling through distraction, depending on your point of view) I found the draft of an old story,  “Bump” based on a relationship that ended a long, long time ago, when I lived in Lexington, Kentucky. She once called me “a neanderthal with a college degree.” This was her way of getting in the last word before she went to find one of her long time fuck buddies who was also in a relationship. I remember thinking that since her version of culture included screwing all of my friends, I was fine with being a neanderthal. 

After a while wandering my mind’s geography turns sour and when I look outward, some shit bag has littered the landscape and left it to me to clean it up.

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2023, Driftwood, Ohio River Valley Literature, poetry, river life, the no-scape, Working Class Literature

driftwood redrift

go on, tell them that did not know you when,
stories of what you did.

relish the disbelief in their eyes. know
you walk with 100 billion foundation myths.

yes. sometimes the way is pain.

trust what hurts. faith in muscle and bone is the lie.

know this knowing this is how you will kill the body and live.

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