Poetry by Rickey Rivers Jr

Waking World

Why do we wake prematurely? It's one of two things. One is restroom and the other is something in the waking world needing our immediate attention. What could it be, a fire, a bug, body pain, an intruder, soon news of family tragedy? You never know until you awaken. The waking world doesn't wait for you to wake. While you slumber reality moves on. Reality is runaway train like and you a comatose passenger. Time does not take itself. It just goes. That speeding train will not slow down for you or anyone else. When you awaken all seems well but it's not. A passenger has just jumped, another has fallen to sleep, all very normal. The train keeps chugging. Unconscious tracks contain collective cries, citing cities. Calendars calculate sleep patterns. Wake up, sleepy head.




​Chemo Treatment

How it slithers through veins and stinks up your corpse,
the venom does the job quite well.
You lay, slow die.
That's all it is, the poison all inside.
How much longer?
You wonder before the time comes for tasteless food.
Laying in that comfortable coffin,
the sheets on top of you
like the weight of angel wings.
And it drip, drips.
Lay in this room.
See it drip, drip.
Am I even alive?



Rickey Rivers Jr was born and raised in Alabama. He is a writer and cancer survivor. His stories and poems have appeared in various publications, some are forthcoming in a Twist in Time Magazine, Dodging the Rain, Elephants Never, Neon Mariposa (among other publications). Twitter.com/storiesyoumight /https://storiesyoumightlike.wordpress.com/