Hope this rings hard in your hearts.

Meditate on this for a second.
Listen, don’t ask me anything.
I never knew a damn thing.

I was a roulette king.
Put one on the wheel, let it fly,
to the sugar steal.

Cry my name, Jesse James.
The fire hit hard.
t was cold and dark.
The bar, it was empty.

Flies on the fly trap.
99 degrees in the tepid sky.
I took that breath and went in.
Saw the safe and made my escape.

Then when I left,
I lit the match.
And I laughed.

The fire, burned, phosphorous.
Sulfur.
It was 98, it was mid-October
when I left,

It was all over.
I was another bullet in the gun.
of a rodeo soldier.
 
 

Jason Wright is the editor and founder of Oddball Magazine. His column appears weekly. His third book, Train of Thought 2: Almost Home is available now at the Oddball Book Store.