AMERICA’S SWEETHEARTS
It wasn’t so long ago
that we lived like beasts
punch-drunk on dirty water
Broken wings unfurl
laments are nevermore
Jeri Cain Rossi wrote
“let’s get lost, Iris”
in Red Wine Moan
and that’s us
for better or worse,
the king and queen
of redemption
Sifting through the wreckage
of life’s horrors is hard enough
Everything that you are
will still be in my veins
even after we turn to dust
Maybe we’ve become
more June and Johnny Cash
than Sid and Nancy, after all
This is the life
that we both deserve
These are the best moments
JUNEBUGS
Reverend Keller leads a refrain
of “That Old Rugged Cross”
Words left unsaid
that should have been spoken
echo through the cathedral
Footprints remain like tattoos
and forget me nots
fill up empty pockets
When the curtain falls
and the final scene ends,
there’s not a dry eye in the house
Everything dies,
that’s just the nature
of things
Nothing can change
all that you are
TOURNIQUET
Corso engaged Genet
in a battle of wills
to see who deserved
the straightjacket more
Ginsberg’s vanity
made it overtly obvious
that madness ran in the family
Lew Welch caved from the pressure
and disappeared without a trace
into the great wide open
Norse went running to Neeli
to declare Bukowski a bully,
but he wasn’t breaking any news
Kerouac’s notoriety
was what they strived for
in the Beat Hotel
Cassady was the man
they all wanted to be
and coming up short
only made them tie
the tourniquet tighter
Michael N. Thompson likes bacon, fantasy football and Doctor Who. His poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals including Word Riot, Toronto Quarterly and San Pedro River Review. He is the author of four poetry collections. His fifth, Days Of Swine And Roses, will be released through University Of Hell Press in 2017. Michael is currently at work on a crime fiction novel. ![]()
www.michaelnthompson.com
