Got you in
the stranglehold.

Gold,
soulful sound.

Keeping my head
right with the crown.

My magician mind
got me playing tricks.

Thinking I got
something other

than eyelids
and eye movement.

Teacher
to student:

Dear Prudence
Can you sit

while we
take attendance.

Can you sit
when Sense One

gets on the mic
and rearranges the place

so the angel faces
can look my way?

So I can find
my ashtray.

Wordplay,
a cosmic epidemic.

Call me
a medic.

Used predate
and predicted

in a sentence
and they want

to form criminal complaints
about spraypainted boards.

Lucky, you got me,
it’s all I could afford.

I’ll own
the building

and make it
Oddball Foundation.

Rent gone up,
homeless go,

lost their phones
lost their homes.

So deepen
the time

and make
the rhyme last.

‘Cause it’s
a rhythm whiplash,

Listening to
“Stranglehold”

while your trying
to take a bath,

taking out
the trash

The mind
is something.

True
treatment.

Peace to all
those alive

who still get
to see beauty.

 

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.