Josh Booton
Prodigal
From the rebuilt Buick a few spare parts,
from the earth’s precession a backdoor
for havoc to hurry through. From me to you
a thousand miles and my condolences
about a thousand things. You pick.
Say global warming, I’ll clear some space
in the fridge for you. Say your shattered
heart, I’ll buy a thousand shares
of duct tape. Nothing? Still, here, I sit,
watching the sun rise with more flair
than necessary, counting the dead
houseflies that punctuate the white sill,
even their corpses decked out
in iridescence and me always feeling
a bit unprepared, wishing I could hear
myself when I holler, here I am! But
it’s too early for hollering. Might as well
enumerate each absence and label it
a song. Here is a coast; here, a harbor.
From here to there. In the hearsay
of the great hereafter. Here goes nothing.
Josh Booton is a graduate of The Michener Center for Writers at The University of Texas at Austin. He was awarded the 2011 Keene Prize and was a finalist for the 2010 Missouri Review Editors' Prize. His poems have appeared in The Missouri Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Poetry Northwest, Iron Horse, Raleigh Review, Borderlands and elsewhere.
Return to May 2013 Edition
From the rebuilt Buick a few spare parts,
from the earth’s precession a backdoor
for havoc to hurry through. From me to you
a thousand miles and my condolences
about a thousand things. You pick.
Say global warming, I’ll clear some space
in the fridge for you. Say your shattered
heart, I’ll buy a thousand shares
of duct tape. Nothing? Still, here, I sit,
watching the sun rise with more flair
than necessary, counting the dead
houseflies that punctuate the white sill,
even their corpses decked out
in iridescence and me always feeling
a bit unprepared, wishing I could hear
myself when I holler, here I am! But
it’s too early for hollering. Might as well
enumerate each absence and label it
a song. Here is a coast; here, a harbor.
From here to there. In the hearsay
of the great hereafter. Here goes nothing.
Josh Booton is a graduate of The Michener Center for Writers at The University of Texas at Austin. He was awarded the 2011 Keene Prize and was a finalist for the 2010 Missouri Review Editors' Prize. His poems have appeared in The Missouri Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Poetry Northwest, Iron Horse, Raleigh Review, Borderlands and elsewhere.
Return to May 2013 Edition