Poetry by Jon Berger

That time I got ejected from a Golf Cart and my Girlfriend Dumped me

It was a school night
She dropped me off
At a party at the gun club
That I worked at
“If you do something stupid tonight
We’re breaking up.”
She had a test in the
Morning
And her
green eyes
could eat through
People like
They were
Melted butter on a
Spoon.

Drinking
Taking out the governor
Drinking
Shotguns and pistols
And pills
muzzle flashes
Like fireflies on meth

Driving down cement stairs
Jumping homemade dirt
and drinking and
Landing so hard the brakes came
Off.

bent the roll cage
and hit a guard rail
And  flew out
And into
A truck
My body caused
$500 in damage
That I didn’t pay

Limped for a while
With some hematomas

She got straight A’s
And moved away.

​


Mouse Dog

one chromosome above the rest
is the king of recess that barely reads
a debonair of kickball against the gen ed. kids
starts games of tag in the classroom
writes poop on the board when no one looks

he doesn’t know the word puppy
cringing his brow like a scholar
he rubs his head and thinks real hard
a mouse dog. of course. a better answer
than puppy. but the teacher shakes her head

he drinks her discrimination like mt dew
the chromosome gives him this power
he sees past my mr. mask that i am a person
be he remains his genetic title forever
a knight in shining gym shorts

my job is to be his dread of everything.
sentencing him to an isolated detention
a dungeon is an empty room. a dragon torturing his
ability to create gold out of daily life. he slays it all
returns smiling and flashing people his balls, running free.

​
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Bio: Jon Berger lives in Saginaw, Michigan. His work has appeared in Five 2 One Magazine, Jellyfish Review, The New Engagement, fluland mag, The Bitchin’ Kitsch andOddball Magazine.