Three Poems

Wallace Barker

The Fear is Always the Same

theres a ghost that lives in the park

if you climb the hill too slowly or

too fast he will drag you to hell

people let their dogs off-leash

to run in the grass fields and

the ghost will drag them to hell

i see crossfit classes doing sprints

and barbells on the tennis courts

and i see the ghost waiting to drag them to hell

on the swings toddlers are being

pushed by very young parents

and the ghost will drag them to hell

on the outskirts of the playground

at the far reaches of the pea gravel

a black grackle hops on one leg

the black grackle knows about the ghost

so it will never be dragged to hell but

it will hop around awhile longer then go

wherever grackles go when they die

Overdose

watching nba finals w my best friend but

shit is rigged he falls asleep on the couch

bc he has work early tomorrow the half empty

beer warming on the coffee table the smoke filled

night crowding out palm fronds, oak saplings

drive home and text my friend an emoji let him know

I’m safe I survived one more journey across the face

of the earth in dark night when mysteries form and dissolve

like cloud patterns department store t-shirt advertising

some discount brand long since discontinued all my things

are like this all the decor is knockoff roses are fake

dust settles its all thats left of those who came before

Powerball

well I won the lottery last night

and felt like the tunnels inside me

all caved in crushing little miners

digging away trapped or suffocated

the salty earth the dark caverns

now full and dead as a winter beach

the mistakes weren't mistakes anymore

anything could be fixed quite easily

those dark alleyways and blind turns

could no longer tempt me who needs em

I have so much money I might even

redo my bathroom or something each

dollar I won is an IOU from god

I'm cashing in now I'm so alive

I'm dead there are masters and servants

and I no longer gossip in the corridors

I sleep late while others wonder if I might

be dead in there but they don't dare

enter my chamber to confirm now when

the TV people are talking abt stock markets

it actually means something to me

all the hateful people and places from which

I was born the squalid cold mornings with

no heat, no food, broken windows the swoon

as I recall my mother warming my feet with her hands

the terrible dollars I won in the lottery

Wallace Barker lives in Austin, Texas. His new translation of "Romancero Gitano" by Federico García Lorca is available from Farthest Heaven. His book "Collected Poems 2009-2022" is available from Maximus Books and his debut poetry collection "La Serenissima" is available from Gob Pile Press. More of his work can be found at wallacebarker.com.