J.J. Campbell


the right side of the tracks

she was a beauty queen
from a school on the right
side of the tracks and he
was a poet way too old
to be dating someone
as beautiful as she was

the looks from strangers
were always entertaining

the conversations lasted
for hours

the sex was way better
than she ever imagined
it would be

but, like usual, the poet
was bored

beauty can only go so far

life is in the wrinkles,
the damages

the scars that tell a story
a few miles long

she had none of them

he had more than he
could ever bother to
show

she picked up on the
boredom and soon left
for someone closer to
her age

the poet was relieved

he now had his lost
queen to fill page
after page



trembles with emotion

the only soul that ever loved
you calmly explains why she
can never spend the rest of
her life with you

no one likes a grown man
crying while the bottom lip
trembles with emotion

the future seems like some
cruel fucking joke

growing old watching sunsets
on a porch swing off on some
little corner of our own world

she claims there isn’t another
man involved

just a moment of clarity over
a bottle of vodka and a few
clove cigarettes

and as you pleaded for
anything to change her
mind

the void inside you only
grew deeper

twenty years of abuse

of drunken nights alone

of bent spoons and every
emotion spilled on paper

she is happy and you know
you never will be

your parents never explained
that other side of reality




J.J. Campbell (1976 - ?) was raised by wolves yet managed to graduate high school with honors. He's been widely published over the last 25 years, most recently at Cajun Mutt Press, Terror House Magazine, Synchronized Chaos, Winedrunk Sidewalk: Shipwrecked in Trumpland and The Beatnik Cowboy. You can find him most days on his mildly entertaining blog, evil delights. (https://evildelights.blogspot.com)
 
 
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