A LOT OF NERVE

Kenneth Pobo

The uppity cemetery thinks

that it will have me completely.

Like a lover who put me in

the coffin of his need.

I leave the coffin and head

for a bar which makes

killer martinis.  I can’t skip

dying, but I can skip the graveyard,

my ashes snugging in

 

a rose bush.  The cemetery

will stick its marble tongue out

at me.  I’ll squeeze my soul

into a tongue and stick it

right back.

Kenneth Pobo grew up in Villa Park, Illinois, but now lives in Pennsylvania.  He is the author of twenty-one chapbooks and nine full-length collections.  Recent books include Bend of Quiet (Blue Light Press), Loplop in a Red City (Circling Rivers), Uneven Steven (Assure Press), Sore Points (Finishing Line Press) Lilac and Sawdust (Meadowlark Press) and Lavender Fire, Lavender Rose (BrickHouse Books). Opening is forthcoming from Rectos Y Versos Editions. Human rights issues, especially as they relate to the LGBTQIA+ community, are also a constant presence in his work.