Haiku for Water & Main
The first thing you need
to know about any big
small mountain town is:
Don’t do cocaine in
the bathroom of the local
dive bar. It is rude
to have what others
do not, so don’t flaunt yourself
where everyone goes
to die alone in
a crowd, even though
it takes years and they pretend
they’re dead already
’cause it’s funny
to make fun of your meaningless
life by calling
it meaningless. It
kills time to sit in darkness
with others like you
(god forbid someone
new comes along, a cute blonde
one-third her size and
nine-thirds smarter than
that vicious middle-aged cunt
who holds court in all
the big small mountain
town local dive bars across
America. I’ve
seen it with my own
eyes, was that cute blonde the cunt
hated and busted
on because she was
a bully & everyone
was on her side &
wanted me dead for
breathing the air she controlled
with rumors and wrath
claiming all the cute
blondes like me were psychopaths
and liars, falling
stars who seduced dead-
beat local men. Trees that threw
shade yet bore no fruit,
never shared their coke).
Enormity: Oil on Wood Canvas
I tried so many ways to give you away so I wouldn’t have to destroy you; but no one wanted you even for free, and that’s saying a lot about where I live, where it’s customary to adorn curbsides with discards but with care because one person’s trash is— well, y’all know how it is.
I was truly of the mind someone would snatch you up. Someone must need art for their home. A placeholder until something truly snatches up their heart. I mean, did passers-by not see in you what I once saw? A place of hope, a chance to atone. But no, no one saw even the Novelty of your freeness. And so I watched the rain wash you away.
Phallacy
April’s books include Carousel (Inanna Publications), Winner of the International Book Awards for LGBTQ Fiction; The Poor Children, Winner of the Santa Fe Writer’s Project Program for Fiction; and Death Is a Side-Effect (Frog Hollow Press). Her fourth book, People Are Metaphors and Goodbyes, is forthcoming this December with Cactus Press Poetry, and her fifth book, big Small mountain town, is forthcoming in 2025. She’s a Pushcart Prize recipient for her short story |