Jim McCrary


from Red Hot Son Ettes



What if from here to where
Ever comes before the finish of this
Can we ever return to that
Can that ever
Can that







It is not just because I can either
Way is no more than effort
Wishing it was more than just promise
Which held up to any light source







Not that these will help
Not even asking for that kind of
Attention just tossed about today
Like the nervous cat sitting behind a screen







How awful reminds me of another
Line wrung out of mud like images
Collected in some hazy time
lapse of old repeat old head time







You say what’s missing
You say where’s the heart
You say why no tears
You stay away okay







Me showing you my
Wounds don’t make them
Get smaller or go away
You gotta be okay with that







This is the blood I got
All over my memory from
Whatever came at me
And how I knocked it down








Stopping one hit with another
Is older than time itself
And works in mid-century
Americana called suburban abuse







Some things just seem best
Left in the past way past time
Not that it heals a wound
And you cant outlive the memory




Jim McCrary lives in Lawrence, Ks. Latest publications include Year Book (a memoir writing with one line for each year alive) and Red Hot Son Ettes. Both chapbooks from Really Old Gringo Press. Appears with many others in forthcoming anthology The End of The World Project. Can usually be found at local dive bar poetry series at 8^th St Taproom, downtown Lawrence.
 
 
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