Buck Downs : a pure flavor layer

***

                     I don’t mind

          them showing me

                     ads for stuff

                     I’m never

          gonna buy, okay --

          but I can’t believe

you’d like me to hook up

with a community --

***

crooked lists

and fake tests

to take you in

and bring you home

what you will learn

is not a lesson --

***

my swerve is true

          I lost my heart

to a girl that was down

                     one more kiss

before they haul you

                     off to jail

***

I’m sick of my stuff

I never have enough

                     my dreams keep

          putting me down

          sometimes I can’t

          even sleep right --

***

a jar for broken john

watered with her tears

and if a doctor

would call that living

          she would do it

and keep him alive

***

devil in a body-bag

          jealous of the dead

still trying to tell us

                               what to do

***

a pure flavor layer

I almost got weaned

off my secret sauce

but then I caught a taste

now I’m back on the shit

parking under the table

taking furious dream notes

         

Another Tricky Day (2020) is Buck Downs's third above/ground chapbook, following The Hack of Heaven (2017) and shiftless [harvester] (2016). A native of Jones County, Miss., Buck lives in Washington, DC, and works as an executive writing coach. Other book projects and poems can be found at www.buckdowns.com and on Instagram @thesomethingfornothing.