casey quinn | 3 poems

this line is our god

i was born into a family line
grew up wearing the same clothes
passed down from older brother
to the next
until they reached me,
the end of the line

in school i sat

chairs arranged in lines,
learned to color with crayon

inside the lines,

wrote my first letters

ensuring each stroke fit

within the lines

forced to erase if any escaped

where they so call belonged

i waited in line
to get my driver’s license
to get registered for college courses
to see the Yankees win the world series

i waited in line
to earn my first job
to say goodbye at my aunt’s funeral
to meet my wife

this line

has us boxed

taught to live within,
rewarded for thinking outside of,
deemed a rebel to wander,
a conformist to follow

and still i wait in line
knowing my number
will be called at some point
and all i can do
is drink a little wine,
take each day at a time
like my father did
and his father
and his.

the new arena of death

is not a stadium

with gladiators

with fans
who cheer to see blood

and guts

as war torn tough men
fight it out for survival
when in the end

one man dies
and the other gains freedom

but instead

a high rise

made with granite and glass
and cube walls and phones
and computers and

middle aged bodies

half filled
with life and

half filled
with coffee

who just barely scrape by

and awake only

to wait for death

to come find them.

medicine

whiskey, aspirins, weed, cigarettes,
chick flick, slasher script,
new novel, pizza delivery

an embrace, a laugh, a tear,
hand written note,
late night phone call

a god, a devil

all have served
as medicine
to someone at sometime

Casey Quinn

is an avid reader of prose and poetry and created Short Story Library in May of 2008 to provide an outlet for many writers to have their work published. When not reading submissions, posting in the writers forum or marketing the magazine, Casey writes his own prose and poetry in addition to non fiction articles and has had over 1,000 pieces of writing in one form or another published in print or online formats.

Short Story Library is a free weekly online magazine which offers the best of poetry, microfiction, flash fiction and short stories on the web.  We accept submissions all year round and try to respond within six weeks to the submissions we have received. We are also accepting art work, general articles, book reviews and writing articles for consideration in our publications.

Casey Quinn’s second poetry chapbook Prepare To Crash was released in November 2009 by Big Table Publishing and is available for sale right here.

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