Damon Hubbs

Skinny Poems

It all started
with Pippi Longstocking
or was it Patti Smith
I don’t know
my brain
is like
a contortionist
trying to fit
into a suitcase
But who
are we kidding
Inspiration is fleeting
And my part
in the downfall
of art
is legendary
As soon as I started
writing
skinny poems
I became a man
in a gray suit
who never
dreamed
of lifting a horse
across
the sea.

Margins

In Amsterdam, in
June, you said
you loved dick
more than Chris Kraus.
It cheered me up.
I was mourning
my mother, savagely
thinking about
the sacred grove
and the margins of Medieval art.
Cancer, cancer, cancer.
What flowers grow
the holy cause
gasps under
the weight of it.
Theory is a part
of the plot,
who gets to speak
and why, like a
Coca-Cola strike
in Latin America…
you were always
saying things like that
when the birds flew backwards
across the Amstel
and the sacred grove
became more
sacred I remembered that
quote by Sun Tzu
how if you sit by a river
long enough
you’ll see your
enemies float by

their eyes an exercise in love
their piss as heavy
as the year gone past.

 

Another Nail in the Coffin

What am I going to do about the girl
from the wrong side of the tracks
What am I going to do about her night moves
She wants to open a little nail salon
She wants to start a podcast
pull up to the bumper
double nickels on the dime
She wants a wedding at a chapel on The Strip
What am I going to do about the girl
whose father fixes matches
down at Gloves & Glory
who has a collection
of Nazi memorabilia
and a wife who slips me the tongue
when we say goodbye
after Sunday dinner
What am I going to do
when the walls close in
and Hell’s conductor comes calling
I’m going to marry that girl
and buy a plot of land
and give her some money
for that little nail salon.

 

Damon Hubbs is a poet from New England. Recent publicationsinclude Revolution John, The Gorko Gazette, Be About It Press, The Literary Underground, and Horror Sleaze Trash. His latest chapbook, Skins Under the Hammer, is available from Bottlecap Press. He is a poetry editor at Blood+Honey and The Argyle Literary Magazine.