“Sorry Hoss, Death ain’t your roller-skate waitress. The other day
Richy stuck his teeth into the world of a bluebird and watched the
little ghost steam out. I can’t name the murder capital of the world.
I can’t explain how it runs on money. The real cost of glass is
always time. Death sings Anything Goes in mandarin to your mic-
rophone of sand. All the hydrants on my end of town gushed off
by the hour last night. Each looked so normal in the pinkest part of afternoon,
but only thing keeping all that water screwed was paint and pressure.
Death is not your cool whip on top. Death hides behind the moon
in your x-ray. Death goes bulge in formal wear- a 40 acre plume
of total neon smoke that’ll make that skin of yours feel a size loose.
Death won’t eat your dry rusk. It craves cold meat.  Your grandpa,
your mother, your cousin, my cousin? She’s wild. She hopped
John Chapman’s fence to dance on the dirt of his grave-
in case you thought my name’s not mud.”

Zach Arnett is a magnet tester out of Fort Wayne, IN. His work can/will be found in NOÖ Weekly, Stoked, 90’s Meg Ryan and Stone of Madness.