Sitting in your hunting stand at noon,
You pull the strap of your 22
Up across your arm and aim past paint fumes
Through an asphyxiated scope, and
You see grizzly dogs blistering
In a pen,
And smell the tar dripping from the soles of their old paws.
In the lens‘ reflection, near bushes green and brown,
You can still taste the feces ridden diaper
And see the hidden heroin needle stabbing pale ground.
You catch whiff of a shadow refracting in the hall,
Which makes you recall when the anger grew veins of sweat on the wall
As your wife exploded,
Melting the flower patterned paper
She chose years before, and tossing a pan of burnt
Bacon at you that stung your pores with the greasy spill.
Mercury climbed your throat, but you swallowed and turned
Away where you found yourself drowned in your neighbor’s pool--
Each breath introduced more tremors to your senses,
Pulling you deeper,
Until the pool drained with your wallet and last pennies. You twitched and groaned
Until you found yourself aiming through his
Window, demanding your gambled drug money back.
The whiskey-stained air marks up from the glass of cockroaches.
You rub them from your eyes
And listen for sounds of movement: his feet, the blow flies
Hovering over the carcasses of your dogs or wife.
But all you can hear are the police sirens
Warble and vibrate the vanity on which your image
Blurs with your character: the decapitation
Of white picket fences from the grassy knolls that singe
The History channel listings.
You see your role, your lines, your character’s background
Now more than you can your sanity,
For the mirror is the scope and the world displayed
Your addiction.
Tommy J. Moore is a proud Mississippian who recently graduated summa cum laude from Kutztown University with a BA in English. He is currently enrolled in the West Chester University MA of Literature track and has been writing poetry in his free time for years. Two of his poems, “The Cardinal Tree” and “From a Distance: Janitors,” were published in the 2010 edition of Shoofly, an annual journal created by Kutztown University which specializes in poetry and short fiction. His focus, both critically and artistically, is situated in the realm of the postmodern and Gothic—with an extra affinity towards southern Gothic. As well as honing his poetry, he is currently in the process of finalizing a manuscript on Stephen King’s postmodern Gothic for publication. His career goal is to earn a PhD in English and teach on the University level.