it was a golden time
been on the road
long enough now
to feel like three
mummified frogs
dried in a tejas mudpuddle
a woman in a wal-mart
parking lot shouts
I don’t believe you
should leave a baby
in a car, even if its running
I’m gonna steal what I need
some scoundrel hunter
gatherer from ancient time
there’s a dead bear in an irrigation
ditch, it left me with the strange
feeling I’ve been here before
the windshield grows
a mustache, I see the world
clearer in my dreams
problem is, I never
remember my dreams
About the Author: Jason Baldinger is a poet from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was recently a Writer in Residence at Osage Arts Community, and is founder and co-director of The Bridge Series. He has multiple books available including the soon to be released The Better Angels of our Nature (Kung Fu Treachery) and the split books The Ugly Side of the Lake with John Dorsey (Night Ballet Press) as well as Little Fires Hiding with James Benger (Kung Fu Treachery Press). His work has been published widely in print journals and online. You can listen to him read his work on Bandcamp on lps by the bands Theremonster and The Gotobeds.
More by Jason Baldinger:
“I forgot the earth and heaven”
“When Cancer Come to Evansville, Indiana”
Photo Credit: Carol M. Highsmith “Deserted truck stop in Sierra Blanca, made a virtual ghost town when the interstate highway bypassed it in Hudspeth County, Texas” (2014) The Library of Congress
As It Ought To Be 