If You're Thinking About Shoveling the Collagen off Your Bones, Don't By Justin Karcher

If You're Thinking About Shoveling the Collagen off Your Bones, Don't

Another night, another midnight walk.
Tonight the snow in Buffalo feels like collagen,
Big and beautiful flakes holding my body together.‬

It's bulk garbage day on Richmond Ave.
And there are a bunch of dirty mattresses on the side of the street.
I smoke a cigarette and watch one mattress

Become slowly covered up by the snow.
It makes me think of intimacy,
How sometimes it grows cold.

I'm half-tempted to drag it into the middle of the street
And brush it off, show the world that it's still a good mattress,
That you can still make love on it.

Suddenly I hear crying and a language I don't understand.
Across the street, in front of a church,
There's this old man talking on the phone.

I stare at him in silence until I feel rude.
I start kicking the mattress and don't know why.
Maybe it's the distance between all of us.

Later on, in front of Milkie's, I run into Mike Sentman
Who hosts the open mic there.
He introduces me as a great poet to his brother

And asks if I want to read.
It feels nice to be complimented, but I decline,
Tell him I'm thinking, that I'll read next week.

I light up another cigarette and walk home.
The snow still feels like collagen,
But the wind's blowing harder now.

​

Bio: Justin Karcher is the author of Tailgating at the Gates of Hell from Ghost City Press, http://ghostcitypress.tumblr.com/gcp003, the chapbook When Severed Ears Sing You Songs from CWP Collective Press, https://www.cwp-press.com/#/when-severed-ears-sing-you-songs/ and the micro-chapbook Just Because You've Been Hospitalized for Depression Doesn't Mean You're Kanye West from Ghost City Press, https://gumroad.com/l/karcher2017, as part of their 2017 summer micro-chapbook series. His recent work has appeared in Foundlings, Cease,Cows, Thought Catalog, varsity goth, Occulum and more. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Ghost City Review. His one act play When Blizzard Babies Turn to Stone premiered in February at Alleyway Theatre in Buffalo, NY. He tweets @Justin_Karcher.

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