dedicated to those
trained in self-sabotage
tripping around in darkness
lost in the art of
trying to find the light
it’s there
somewhere
if I find it first
I’ll leave it on
for you
©2024 JDCIV All rights reserved.
James Dennis Casey IV is a poet, artist, and founder/editor-in-chief of Cajun Mutt Press. His newest books are Bad Weed Never Dies and I Pledge Allegiance To The Flag.
LOST SOMEWHERE IN WEST TEXAS
On all sides,
dark as a dead man’s vision.
Car’s on lower than low
and the gas station’s shuttered.
In the passenger seat,
you wrap your jacket tighter around you.
I contemplate the road ahead,
wonder how many more miles of Texas
this clunker will cover tonight.
At least, I’m not being bugged
by that May beetle of a retort,
“I told you so.”
You’re the kind who deals with
whatever life gives you.
If that means sleeping in the car overnight,
you’ll curl up in the back seat
and snore your way through
to the coming of rescue.
But I’m angry with myself,
so it’s not as if I’m free of rancor.
And I’m not even sure what highway we’re on
or if we’re headed in the right direction.
I turn off the engine and settle down too.
If I’m to be lost,
here is as good a place as any.
Did I tell you that, on all sides,
it’s as dark as a dead man’s vision.
It’s also as dark as a live man’s miscalculation.
It’s almost midnight in the middle of nowhere.
Light doesn’t stand a chance.
©2022 John Grey All rights reserved.
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Sheepshead Review, Stand, Poetry Salzburg Review, and Hollins Critic. Latest books, Covert, Memory Outside The Head, and Guest Of Myself are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Ellipsis, Blueline, and International Poetry Review.
