James Diaz
A Life of its Own
this poem took a wrong turn
hit a tree, a few small animals
went to rehab and wailed when asked about its inner child
worked the steps and died
felt stuff it hadn’t felt in years rise to the surface
like hot ash under the heel of the river
dark was its swerve
deep was its hurting
it made bail, it bawled after the trial
a free poem, at last
it could still feel the cuffs on its pages
for years and years
all it could word out was wailing
it burned and got taped back together
its black smears were beautiful
and unending
it fell to its knees and drank rain out of the earth
it smiled up at stars that looked like mouths that looked like ten thousand glorious galaxies colliding in the back of an old Buick parked by the river
it took its crash
and it made it golden – all the beautiful pain that pen gave it.
James Diaz is the author of This Someone I Call Stranger (Indolent Books, 2018) and editor of the forthcoming anthology What Keeps us Here: Songs from The Other Side of Trauma (Anti-Heroin Chic Press, 2018). In 2016 he founded the online literary arts and music journal Anti-Heroin Chic to provide a platform for often unheard voices, including those struggling with addiction, mental illness and Prison/confinement. He resides in upstate New York, in between balanced rocks and horse farms. He has never believed in anything as strongly as he does the power of poetry to help heal a shattered life.
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