zach king-smith | two poems

The Recession Blues

I’m sick & tired
of all the shop
talk on the news.

A man took
a .45 caliber
pistol to his
head because
his family
couldn’t eat
& seeing his
kid’s stomachs
shrink up
made him
sick.

No news
of that
was there?

Balloon Like Brain Bulge Through The Meat Grinder

I have
a meat
grinder
behind
my eyes
that is
working
on my
frontal
lobe
squeezing
the veins
& i might
go blind.

My mother
died of an
aneurysm
her father
a brain
tumor.

I guess
it runs
in the
family.