Five Poems by John Yamrus

 

the woman

 

wrote

to me and said:

 

i have

nothing to

write about...

nothing to say...

any suggestions?

 

quit.

 

he stuck his

 

head

out the car

window and yelled:

 

you

stupid shit,

watch where you’re going!

 

i couldn’t

answer him

the way i liked,

because my hands

were full and (besides)

 

i

really

didn’t know.

 

 

nobody

 

knows

the

last

time

 

is

the

last

time

 

until

it

is.

 

the only books

 

he

ever read

cover to cover

 

were

I, THE JURY,

by Mickey Spillane

 

and

a book

on dog training

 

that he

ended up

giving away

 

after

the dog

got hit by a car. 

 

he

never did

get another dog,

 

but,

damn it to hell,

Mickey Spillane sure could write!

 

the hurt

 

was worse

than anything

he could have imagined,

 

but,

he didn’t

want to dull it,

 

so

he put

aside the glass...

 

walked

out in the yard

and stared at the trees.

 

 

John Yamrus - In a career spanning more than 50 years as a working writer, John Yamrus has published 35 books (29 volumes of poetry, 2 novels, 3 volumes of non-fiction and a children’s book). He has also had more than 3,000 poems published in magazines and anthologies around the world. A number of his books and poems are taught in college and university courses. He is widely considered to be a master of minimalism and the neo-noir in modern poetry. His latest books are TWENTY FOUR POEMS and SELECTED POEMS: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT. A second volume of his poetry was just released in Europe, translated by Fadil Bajraj..