“Be Tracked 2” © Thomas Riesner

 

Hamburger Hank

Name was Hamburger Hank. Rumor was
He was an ex-con who had served
His time for voluntary manslaughter.
He served us loose meat sandwiches
In the lunch line at high school,
A scoop of meat on a bun; a couple
Sliced pickles. Rumor was he was
An alumnus, a former wideout
For the football squad in 1966.
He played for the Ag-Tech college
As well. And then he killed a man
With a ten-pound tube of frozen
Hamburger. The man had raped
Hank’s girlfriend, and Hank beat
The man’s head in with frozen meat.
This was in the back room of the Maid-Rite,
In their walk-in freezer. This was
During the so-called Summer of Love.
10 years in prison is a long time.
After prison, he rented an attic in the neighborhood
And worked for the school system,
Making lunches until he became a corpse.

 

Rustin Larson’s writing appears in the anthologies Wild Gods (New Rivers Press, 2021) and Wapsipinicon Almanac: Selections from Thirty Years (University of Iowa Press, 2023). His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Iowa Review, Puerto Del Sol, The Penn Review, North American Review, and Poetry East. His latest collection is Russian Lullaby for Brother Donkey (Alien Buddha Press, 2024).

Thomas Riesner: “I was born in Leipzig,Germany in 1971 and I still live here today. Already in elementary school I often painted “abstract” instead of the given concrete drawing. I later retained this style or changed it to “abstract figuration ” I painted a lot at home, always without professional guidance. I didn’t have any specific role models. When I start a picture, I only have a certain idea, but often something completely different emerges. I would describe myself as an outsiderart artist.”