Poetry

Joseph Earl Thomas

Today kids, we are going to talk about / superstructure

Salim Green, Cherry Dip . 2024, oil on wool felt on wood panel. 9 × 9". Photo by Paul Salveson. Courtesy of the artist and François Ghebaly, Los Angeles, New York.

Utah

I always wonder

why the crowd runs.

my homegirl be like, “OK, kill me, sure, but not by accident, for some shit I actually did.”

at stake is something like well-wishes,

or weaker response to fear operations in the world, should

a killer be a type, well,

I keep the blicky locked tight for safekeep & I only

killed a hawk once,

& with a rock

for eating my friend.

Beanie Sigel, Desert Eagle, the four-ty five blasting

at the barbershop, good feeling

& Joy got

that toy Taurus G2C riding passenger, pops

had a P90 & lil sis pulls the M&P

from her purse; big bro tosses

me the green Glock 19,

so he can change the baby’s diaper.

that’s never made sense,

a child asks, with his hand stuffed in a groundhog puppet

if I ever killed somebody at war.…