krypto-night

after another night
of stumbling done-in
down metropolis streets—
too fucked-up to fly

superman lies
eyes closed
still under the influence—
naked in the space

between night & day
conjuring pathetic
x-ray visions
of a spent comic book hero

too tired
to walk through walls
or leap tall buildings
with a single bound

too strung out
to keep it all
from falling down—
dead certain

that truth, justice
& the american way
are no longer worth
the never-ending battle

so,
for the sixth time tonight
the frustrated
man of steel

grabs the .38
from the bedside table—
puts it to his head
& pulls the trigger


the light

mystic politicians
spout meaningless metaphors
a wall of symbols
to mask
defects & imperfections
in the direction taken
down dead-end streets
that run like unholy rivers
bleeding blue
in the night
past old lies
that somehow remain
standing
as shit falls
all around
the master plan
to jump-start the world—
make
a new address
for the dispossessed—
a new language
containing
a new word for god—
syllables
that cast a blinding light
beautiful—white
full of nothing



back-end of the rainbow

night shrugs dark shoulders
& moves into daylight—

i sag like a wounded man
behind the wheel
of a fine 59 cadillac
longer than a baptist sermon

tapping gray ashes
from a vanishing number
into the open mouth
of an overworked ashtray—

morning’s first victim
of the boredom
which creeps along
waffle-house highways

the fading blue light
of "oldies radio"
reaching out like a lifeline
from the back-end of the rainbow

old songs—new songs
nothing adds up
borrow one here
carry one there

a million calculations
never satisfied—

blowing down the highway
ninety miles an hour
somewhere
between now & not now


© D. B. Cox

Bio: DB Cox is a blues musician/writer from South Carolina. His writing has
appeared in Underground Voices, Mystery Island Magazine, Sacramento Poetry
Art & Music, Thunder Sandwich, Dublin Quarterly, Aesthetica, Bonfire, Gator
Springs Gazette, Heat City Review, Snow Monkey and others.

He has had three books of poetry published: Passing For Blue (published by
Rank Stranger Press), Lowdown and Ordinary Sorrows (published by Pudding
House Publications). His first full-length collection, Empty Frames, will
soon be published by Main Street Rag Publishing.