Poem-a-Day

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from 'Silicon Valley of the Shadow of Death'
austinsmith.substack.com

from 'Silicon Valley of the Shadow of Death'

Austin Smith
May 14
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I.
iAdded baby teeth to the abacus now we can keep count of the drone dead

iBroke the bread of atoms in the air saying Take this all of you and eat of it 

iCrossed the Mississippi with an envelope stuffed full of one very long black hair

iDied four years ago but you can still like me on Facebook

iExorcised the demon out of the girl and would take nothing but a glass of tap water

iFished for nine days and caught nothing but the back of my skull

iGave my other coat to my corpse because he was cold

iHad drinks with the new partner yesterday wonderful man

iIntroduced myself to the pianist afterwards he nearly crushed my hand

iJustified it then but now I’m older my grandson shrieks whenever I touch him

iKilled the song just to see the beautiful girls cry out and stop dancing

iLived so long ago a man still came by evenings to sharpen our knives

iMeant what I said about angels last night I was drunk but not that drunk

iNeed to go back to where I came from to the original source and spring

iOffered to give my sister money after the divorce but she insists she’s doing fine

iPiled the buffalo skulls up five dollars an hour for the photographer from Philly

iQuite liked the play actually but found the stabbing melodramatic

iRan the Tilt-O-Whirl at the Illinois State Fair vomit and I are well acquainted 

iSaid I can’t remember the last time we took a day trip honey

iTotally understand if you can’t make it to my birthday it was so long ago now

iUnderwent grave trials in my late twenties but emerged with renewed faith

iVanished into the Sierras with a shotgun and a ring of bone

iWandered into the funeral by mistake and outwept the widow

iXpected you to arrive later but please do come in

iYawned then he yawned and that was sort of the end of that

iZoomed up there real quick and I think we should be ok for Tuesday

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