Kenny what happened
by Mack Gregg

i.
hello portico with broken column
i touch you and a neighbor emerges
from the gaping door

of the squat to go on with
the story of everything
he’s ever lost    faint applause

torn screen hangs
from the window a dogs tongue
licking the body as it escapes

the ditch where last year
a skunk up and died
among the roses asking

whats the point? i pursue
some point that’s beyond you
in the fever of my little death

come out palms first say
remember how they’d burn
the trees to kill the worms<br<
worms all over now and you
don’t even try to want
it to be different




ii.
withdrawal of a hand
a trap for cats, a catch
and release climaxes with

claws in your curtains
all of the sudden you’re gone
you tend the dirt and then

you’re gone. you give me
$20 for a book of sonnets
and a bottle of jack

and then you’re gone
your house has two front doors
and the selfish selfish grass

crabs over brick and broken
glass. pour one out. one for
coming, one for going

Mack Brewer Gregg is a writer and Ph.D candidate in English at the University of California, Riverside. They are interested in hearing how the wound sings, then pressing play again. Their flowers grow on Cahuilla, Serrano, and Luiseño land. Their work has appeared in Stone of Madness Press.

Image by 652234-652234 at Pixabay.