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 linein school i sat
chairs arranged in lines,
learned to color with crayoninside 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 seriesi waited in line
to earn my first job
to say goodbye at my aunt’s funeral
to meet my wifethis line
has us boxed
taught to live within,
rewarded for thinking outside of,
deemed a rebel to wander,
a conformist to followand 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 bloodand guts
as war torn tough men
fight it out for survival
when in the endone man dies
and the other gains freedombut instead
a high rise
made with granite and glass
and cube walls and phones
and computers andmiddle aged bodies
half filled
with life andhalf filled
with coffeewho 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 deliveryan embrace, a laugh, a tear,
hand written note,
late night phone calla 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.