“Obscure” © Thomas Riesner

 

We Call Them Villains

Like a serpent’s tongue you weave,
Letting off the pentecostal like it was your birthright,
Anger fueled wisdom, like a broken Jedi,
You should be easy to decipher, but the flock is in rapture.

The clearance aisles are packed with broken dreams,
And the new smile has all the built in insurance schemes,
Why sell you one tire, when you need all four?
The ground is sick of spitting out oil, it yearns for fire.

And the benevolent hate,
And the criminals sit up high,
And the sinners make stories of their own,
Each one built for profit. Into island homes.

If I could call for help, would I actually want it?
It’s easier down here in the muck and mud,
To just put my head down, work on,
And not start crying at the fall.

 

Shawn Scott Smith lives in Asheville, NC . He plays pinball, and likes to meet new people. All of his adventures are documented on his website at and most social media spots @luckycreature

“Scott Taylor hails from Raleigh, North Carolina. He is a writer and a musician, and an avid world traveler. His short stories and poetry have appeared in numerous print and online publications; his novels Chasing Your Tail and Screwed have been released with Silver Bow Publishing and his novellas Freak and Ernie and the Golden Egg are slated for inclusion in an upcoming anthology with Running Wild Press. He graduated from Cornell University and was a computer programmer in a past life.