Thursday, June 4, 2020

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.