“Dark Poets–Rehab This Time” by David Breeden

 

(for Victoria)

The poet in black
Tee shirt, cuts up
And back her forearms
Hair dyed black
We talk about Bukowski
We talk about Ginsberg

Kerouac and how
Society really bites
We talk about

Not killing ourselves this time
We hope—me old
Her young—we may not
Kill ourselves this time

We hope to find
God in the words this time
That this time we may write ourselves whole
Back to sane this time

 

 

Dr. David Breeden has an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a Ph.D. from the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi, with additional study at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. He has published eight books of poetry and four novels. His poetry and short fiction have appeared in such journals as Mississippi Review, Nebo, Poet Lore, Mid-American Review, North Atlantic Review, Boston Literary Review, Turnstile, Nidus, Paragraph, and New Texas. His short film House Whine was funded by the British Columbia Arts Council. His film Off the Wall won “Best of Fest” at the Great Lakes Film Festival. His next novel, A Poet’s Guide to Divorce, will appear soon from Fine Tooth Press. His newest book of poetry, Ice Cream and Suicide, was recently published by UKA Press in the United Kingdom.