Shiver n' Shakedown
Put
your ragged heart
in
the red dirt
some
boy threw
his
words against a train
outta
town
never
made it
calls
you sometimes
says;
iowa, portland,
mexican
border,
i
still love you
probation
officer
at
the door again
late
on rent again
had
a using dream again
again
again
torpedo
heart
listen
to the town go dead
at
night
against
the chain link fence
wrapped
around
motel
six
blue
sky kids kicking dreams up in their veins
feel
this god make or break you
down
into laughter
why,
you
don't ask why
anymore
you
let the world have at you
take;
liver, gut, limb
take
what you're gonna take
and
shout about all the rest
I
need to sleep
dear
god, I need to remember
where
it is I come from
but
never mind that now
I
see the lights
I
hear the heat
it's
all over except it's not
ever
over.
I've Got You, Hold on
what
it's like
and
no one has stopped
My,
that's quite a wound you've got
I
know
I
really do
to
help you
all
evening
it's
been like this
people
pretending no one is bleeding
no
one human
can
you lift your leg for me
does
this hurt, here, try this way
lean
into my hand, I've got you
fuck
is wrong with these people
I'll
go get bandages, hold on
I'll
be back
and
you tell me it's been ten years since you've been home
and
what happened was...
and
it still haunts you
and
sometimes this feels better
out
here, all alone
better
that the wounds are now only accidents
and
I know, I really do
what
it's been like
I
see you bleeding
no
safe place and so completely human
you're
not foreign to me -I've
got you, hold on.
It
Is No Act, To Love You Here
Trauma
warp
round
the
root
I
rot,
you call-
I
come
running
feel
the
furrow
the
shakes
scan
my
insides
all
rut
and ribbon
say
this
life
will
not
escape us
will
turn
into
a
porch
light
in
the
deep
mountains
and
when
you cry
an
angel
loans its wings
we
beat
the earth
we
drink
deeply
from
that
ground
open
up-
something is coming
through,
bigger
than
light
higher
than
dope
come
drop
these chains
come
hold
this wheel
steady,
scarred
and
beautiful
wishing
well
belly
whispers
break
the
night
and
our
hearts wide
open.
More
than
father's
return
this
time,
our
instinct
for love
and
deserving-
the
retching
along the highway
spilling
its
own light,
and
such
hands as these to catch it.
James Diaz is the author of This Someone I Call Stranger (Indolent
Books, 2018) and editor (along with Elisabeth Horan & Amy Alexander) of the
anthology What Keeps us Here: Songs from
The Other Side of Trauma (Anti-Heroin Chic Press, 2019). In 2016 he founded the
online literary arts and music journal Anti-Heroin
Chic to provide a platform for often unheard voices,
including those struggling with addiction, mental illness and Prison/confinement.
His most recent work can be found in Moonchild Magazine, Occulum,
Drunk Monkeys and Thimble Literary Magazine. He resides in
upstate New York, in between balanced rocks and horse farms. He has never
believed in anything as strongly as he does the power of poetry to help heal a
shattered life.
