Odd Tango was an atheist
after the war.
What choice was there?
Electroshock? Brown Crystal?
A calming agent
every four hours
didn’t cease
the darkness.
Didn’t make
his hairpin hold
any less shakier
than the hour before
the flashlight crapped
and the jungle
cranked to ten.

Counting corpses
rides hard the minutes.
The Wabash shakes
he inherited from his father
didn’t make rest much easier
or peaceful. In fact it
agitated the hour.
The hour before
every four hours.

Mike Jurkovic – Latest full length AmericanMental (Luchador Pres, 2020s), Blue Fan Whirring, (Nirala Press, 2018); President, Calling All Poets, New Paltz, Beacon, NY. Music features, interviews, and CD reviews appear in All About Jazz and Maverick Chronicles 2018-present. Featured poet: London, San Francisco, NYC, Albany, Baltimore. Tuesday night host of Jazz Sanctuary, WOOC 105.3 FM, Troy, NY. He loves Emily most of all.