Shelley’s Lament

There is a picture of Frankenstein staring at me as I type.
No, wait, that’s not it, it’s not Frankenstein, it’s the monster.
Victor, like most men of wealth,
have too much pride to name their illegitimate children.
Often they hide their pain inside of two legs,

INSIDE LEGS, SOME TIME PORTAL OPENS,

Anyway, I did not write you on Valentine’s
And for that I’m eternally sorry.
But remember the last time you visited?
I’m still healing from the stair incident.
I know, it’s okay you said it was an accident.

AND IN THE FUTURE WE REPEAT MISTAKES FROM OUR PAST

But again, do you think Boris Karloff
Liked his makeup?
And do you believe,
perhaps on a weekend trip,
He made love in it?

The Cartel and the reindeer.

Holding onto machine guns,
Listless in the Mexican desert,
The sun has made our hands brutal,
A draw to money, and the only way to eat.

And there in the dust road,
Walks a single reindeer,
Lost from the northern wilds,
Looking at our barrels with defiance,

And we sit there wondering,
If we can make it a meal,
Or a pet?
Something to pass the time.

But the police helicopter flies overhead,
Noise and thunder scaring the deer,
And it hops away,
Free of this nonsense.

Later at night, our guns down,
We see the stars in the sky,
And maybe wonder,
If it’s all an illusion?

Capitalism Sex

Did you buy something from the clearance rack again?

Yes of course you did? Is it pink? Fabric that falls off you in the moonlight.

I look briefly at the phone. Credit card bill grows higher.

And you take as much as it will give and I watch helpless, happy with the skin touch.

I make you bacon and eggs at three am, alone with our thoughts,

Your feet squeak on the old wood planks, a splinter possible anytime,

“Hey baby” you whisper, curling your arms around my neck.

Around my neck, you drown me into the warmth of you,

And I’ll figure out the bills, I’ll have to, your grasp on me.

Spending every dollar to buy something I can’t return.  





Shawn Scott Smith is a writer of a bunch of published poems and short stories. He lives in Asheville, NC, plays pinball, and likes to meet new people.

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