Marcus Severns

Carry On

 

Bonaventure
Survival
With misfortune
Enough to cry
For centuries.

Awestruck
And stranded –
Retaining hope
Even though
I’ve been abandoned

By my father
And my dreams.

Giving up everything
Except for hope

Because despite the continual
Condition
of Submission
And depression

My spirit desires
To rise above
The ashes
of My burning past.

Look!
The sun is rising.

I too
Will carry on.

 

 

Kelly And David

 
David caught me checking out his girlfriends tits
When they fell out of her blouse.

He shouted to her, “Cover up woman! The whole world can see your hooters.”

She pulled a blanket over her chest
Then her eyes fell on me
And they rolled up and down my figure,
Then she made eye contact
And her cheeks turned red.

Her eyes darted to the television,
And that seemed to be the end of that.

I felt bad about the situation,
So I gave David my favorite poetry book
And a novel from a series I had yet to finish.

He accepted the gifts with gratitude,
Then he recited a poem he wrote from memory.

It was a good poem. I was glad he wasn’t mad at me
For checking out his woman.

He had practically adopted her two children,
And they didn’t need any problems.

A week later
She took her children and ran off with another man.

I was crushed for David – he was in love with that woman,
And he enjoyed being a father to her children.

Her oldest daughter who was 17 told me
“My mom said she had a crush on you –
She was thinking about seeing if you wanted to elope
Before she ran off with the other guy.”

I nodded, keeping my thoughts to myself.
She said, “My mom’s a weirdo, right?”

I didn’t say anything.

I kept thinking about her breasts.

 

 

Ambivalent

 

I take bad news
With indifference.

I’ve seen so much of the world.
Blood,
Poverty,
Sleepless nights,
Girlfriends on meth –
I take them all
The way
I think about rocks in space.

They exist,
I just don’t care.

I’m homeless again.

My dad drove me 2000 miles
To abandon me
In Knoxville,
TN
Without money,
Car,
Or way to survive.

I have other family,
But they’re just
The same.

I’m a
Desolation Angel
With a half-smile

Indifferent to the world.

 

 
Boozin and Trippin

 
At the time
I had 3 girlfriends.

The petite one would come over
And I would pull out my dick
And say, “Suck it!”

She would.
Then I would pick her up
And put her on the kitchen counter
And fuck her.

When she was gone
I would get drunk and call
The one who lived down the street
And say, “Come over, I’m lonely.”

She would get there
With a bottle of vodka
And I would say, “Let’s make out.”

She would laugh, and say,
“You can’t just be that blunt about it.
You have to just do it.”

I pulled her close, kissed her,
Then went down her body
Kissing it as I went.

When I was done
She would pull me close
Then ask, “Which girl do you love most?”

I wouldn’t answer. I don’t think I loved any of them.

She would get upset with me for being quiet,
Then she would leave.

I was terribly drunk then, and called the other to visit.

She came by with two boxes of cough meds.
We ate them down
Then went spiraling into an alternate reality.

I think I liked her the most,
But it could simply have been the drugs.

I guess the moral of the story is
All four of us got chlamydia
And I think it came from that first cheating bitch.

Haha! I laugh
Because
They all knew I was seeing all of them at once,
And because I gave the infection back to her
After she caused them all
To break up with me.

I guess there is no moral….
The immoral of the story is this:
Do drugs not women. Women have diseases.

 

Marcus Severns (pen name) has published in magazines and newspapers including The Curry County Reporter, Everyday Poems, and Mountain Heritage Literary Festival. In 2008 he was featured on the cover of Tennessee Magazine as the winner of a regional writing competition. In 2016 he published his first book of poems, The Days The Nights The Love.