Two Poems by Samuel Strathman
Flake
An erratic mess
winds up
at the wrong person’s
funeral, stays to pay
his respects.
After the ceremony,
he cannot find
his motorcycle
even with the tracker
connected to his phone.
*
Neighbours find him
facedown in their pool,
naked underneath
his spacesuit,
revive him so he
can travel to work.
Later, the flake
skips a meeting
to video chat
with his girlfriend,
scores points
with her family
during a debate
on tanning salons.
He re-enters
the boardroom
brimming with exuberance,
but the room is vacant.
*
He visits his aunt
and uncle during bingo.
“Does he know
what day it is?”
cries his aunt,
combs her lips
in bewilderment.
The disloyal nephew
has graduated
to man-child.
As the nurses
escort the seniors
to their rooms,
the uncle asks
his kinsman when
he’ll return.
The flake laughs,
slaps his knee
all the way
to his car.
Left the headlights on!
He enters his vehicle,
turns the key
in the ignition,
hears the engine purr.
*
The meshuggener
arrives home
to an empty fridge.
He goes downstairs
to the cellar,
brings the dead dog’s
old food to the kitchen
for a midnight feast.
He opens a can,
eats with his fingers,
forgets how the weeks
come and go.
Jade
haze from the trees
extinguished
by the glimmer
of the aurora.
Amidst
the verdure below,
ocean
gyres rock steady
against
boats tied
to the
dock,
surf
scrolling
and
crimping
at the
shoreline.
Waves
flood my ears,
rumble
of an avalanche
overtaking
ski slopes
from a
distance.
Samuel Strathman is a poet, author, educator, and the founder/editor-in-chief of Floodlight Editions. His second chapbook, “The Incubus” was published by Roaring Junior Press (2020).
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