Read Poem: A Stomach Filled With Poison by Matt Nagin

1

Always I return to the emptiness, the lack of vigor, and the arrow
in the safari smile; always I am once more among the hunters
and magic spears, cyclops wardens, anvils in the ravine;
always with the suns smashed into the curtains of night
and whirlwind promises sold like bottles of loneliness
in the filthy streets; twisting inside, eradicating a cavernous
bliss, attacking where strength is most required…

2

Rainbow days cascade into wounds that can never quite heal
and presumptive questions for the limerick nights that are
torn asunder with the blinding pain like bandits tortured in
jails of soft demise until they admit defeat—but they won’t—
cannot really—for the fight is all—and to go on is to dream
today—to maintain enough resolve to lift yourself out the
swirling sea, the quicksand of hardship, the limitations
of mind and soul, the spiritual and emotive sacrifices before
the jaguars…