Art Ticker

Nick Stanovick

Reunion

Rain and rain and something close to living

The radio hums but it’s the silence we listen to

We know—our man floating stiff among the lily pads

Our boy of tobacco teeth, our boy of football bruise

No need to talk about it

Gather the driftwood, pour liquor into his eyes,

empty pus pools, beer bloat spreading his hands blue

tonight we pray to the ivory moon and talk of high school

the man a boy then

fishing the banks of the Brodhead Creek and spitting chew into a Coke can

the night rotten with heat and crickets

turn off the radio

shoo the flies from his lips

let him be dead in the morning

half-blooded and done singing of the good nights

Marlboro Lights and an Old Ford

those tires were hooves enough and we beat every inch of pavement we knew

Give me a lantern

the radio, make it play Chesney for old time’s sake

and we walk the length of Milton Lane

singing along until we hear our third voice.

Nick Stanovick is a graduate of Temple University, an alumni of Babel Poetry Collective, and a member of Temple University’s slam team which won the 2016 College Union Poetry Slam Invitational. His poems have been featured in Button Poetry, SlamFind, and SickLit Magazine. He is a lover of freezer pizza, Law & Order SVU, and laughing.




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