Poetry

By

James Diaz

Kansas Don’t Make You Special

I was one lie away

from turning you in

to the fuzz

off an abandoned radio

tower in the south-east-west-north

never-never-land

who knows which

version you brought

with you this time

but no

I absolutely do not

believe that William Burroughs

hit on you when you were sixteen

writing crappy poetry

in a Kansas cafe

& then invited you to a party

that you declined to attend

but I do believe you believe it.

The Thing That I Meant To Tell You Last Time

Nap or nest around

the edges of skin

sucked dry

says he can feel

a storm coming on

but all I see

is a city

burning itself alive.

James Diaz

James Diaz lives in upstate New York. He is editor of the literary arts journal Anti-Heroin Chic. His work has most recently appeared in HIV Here & Now, Foliate Oak, Indiana Voice Journal, These Fragile Lilacs and Bad Acid Laboratories Inc.