Poetry by Nathan Porceng

                       Kaoru CC



“Redemption Song” as performed by Joe Strummer
​
I almost skipped it.
Shittiest day
of a shitty week 
not even halfway done,
I really didn’t want to listen to Joe
singing Bob Marley’s
“song of freedom.”

Only reason 
I let it get past a minute
was my struggle 
to find anew that sweet,
perfect combination
of engine heat
and windshield wiper fluid
to clear the frost
obstructing my view,
so I could leave 
that damn nuclear plant
for a 12 hour reprieve.

I hit the solution,
hit the gas,
and drove away
down the snow encrusted road
to liberty,
site shrinking
in the rearview,
Joe relating
“all he ever had.”

Mind half on the music,
half on the day’s fuck ups,
I reached for my phone,
and started scrolling 
for something more aggressive.

“Have no fear for atomic energy,
‘cause none of them can stop the time.”

That stopped me.

I set down my phone,
put my hands at 
10 and 2,
drove
and just listened.

I knew Joe wasn’t singing about me,
but about nuclear weapons,
the science and geopolitics of death.
He wasn’t singing about
one man’s private power plant hell,
rotating shifts,
catching beatings from above and below,
steam line sweating,
sleep deprived,
going home alone,
to nothing.

Even so,
when the song ended,
I played it again,
and again,
and again,
until I reached my apartment,
and then I played it once more.

I killed the engine and went inside,
feeling a bit better,
like somebody got it.





This.

This right here.
Pen to paper
on a notebook
nightly stowed
in a paracord web 
above my rack.

This.
This is liberation
survival
rebellion
homily
the history
the reality
the potential
of word
and spirit.

This.
This is a transporter
a smoke signal
a siren
creation

C R E A T I O N

in a nuclear powered
missile conduit
under death pressure,
otherwise a barracks bunk,
otherwise another place
hostile and isolated.

This.
This is all.
All and everything.

​

Nathan Porceng is a Washington based poet, songwriter, and submariner. He has been published by Headline and Entropy. Nathan enjoys the works of The Clash and Adrienne Rich.

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