Five Poems by John Yamrus

 

she  

 

was a  

walking eclipse... 

unwholesome fruit... 

a disaster waiting to happen. 

 

that’s why 

she was perfect for him. 

 

disasters were  

his favourite kind of meat... 

 

ripe,  

raw and real.

it snowed like hell that night,  

 

and 

only two people  

showed up for the reading,  

 

leaving  

me and them  

and a pile of empty  

seats and a table covered  

with stacks of books that would never get sold,  

 

and a  

contempt for it all  

can never be put into words.   

 

when  

you’re not  

used to Happy,  

 

you  

grab it,  

squeeze it,  

take it home  

and hope that it  

 

never goes away.

he smelled 

 

of age  

and the river  

where he grew up  

and fished as a kid...   

 

he  

smelled of hurt 

and regret and the kind  

of failure no amount of whiskey  

 

could  

ever remove.

he was broke... 

 

not  

out of  

money broke,  

 

but,  

out of options broke.  

 

Sarah was gone.   

 

the kids  

wanted nothing  

to do with his sorry ass  

and the rent was over 3 months late.   

 

still,  

it was christmas,  

 

so  

before he  

did anything else,  

 

he put  

the lights out,  

 

put up the tree,  

 

covered  

it all with gas  

and sat back and watched it burn.

she died of

appendicitis

when he was nine,

and he

got shuttled

between family

and friends and back

to family again for years.

nobody dies

of appendicitis, anymore,

or sends a kid away the way they did,

so it was

no surprise to anyone

when he got the gun...

got the cash...

and

made it

straight for the coast.

that

was the last

anyone ever heard of the kid.

his name

was Jerry or

Tommy or Tom

and he never did come back.

John Yamrus - In a career spanning more than 50 years as a working writer, John Yamrus has published 40 books. He has also had more than 3,500 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 two most recent books are the memoir THE STREET and a volume of poetry called PRESENT TENSE. In addition, 3 of his books have been published in translation.