Poetry By Stefan Lutter

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​another paragraph overnight

Decades still to come (two)
With a tarp on the roof over the husk
Of a burnt out trailer 
Grandpa chokes on smoke 
And you can’t keep the ashes from blowing into the trees 
To mix with curled yellow leaves.  
 
(Two) decades later you dream you find the ashes  
And forge them back 
Into your Starter Coat
And the 98 Accord, and your grandpa’s .22 
And the fishing pole  
The trading cards 
 
Even the phone in the hall, so you can talk 
At long last to your mother and  
Ask her why she  
Didn’t take you home from the hospital 
Why you ended up with your grandpa 
Standing in a pile of ashes 
 
But instead you’re away from it all, 
Without a way back so what the hell
You maybe take it a little too far 
Your son at his mother’s and  
The ashes envelope you on a Wednesday night 
A hundred miles away.

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Bio: Stefan Lutter was born and raised in Upstate NY, where he still resides. His work has appeared in Word Riot, Five 2 One, and Vending Machine Press.

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