the only other thing is nothing (for will hackney) got your postcard from the edge of civilization in a resort town where water stopped like time in the shimmer of 118 degrees out where the sea level still can't find the sea california has eluded me I haven't seen the salton sea but I miss zabriske point I miss armed attendants pumping expensive gas under blazing mojave sun desert rats aware apocalypse already flashed the last time we shared a desert you were celebrating life beginning as speeches and dances rolled I was in the parking lot cold moon rises full over the sierra blanca attempts to be a dutiful if long distanced partner lonely in the clash between living with abandon and living abandoned I am yucca, sun bleached blossoms mummified while she's hostile brandishing the shovel that would bury us come morning I start east my eyes on lubbock beyond roswell I spy a pecan grove symmetrical oasis stretched miles under unforgiving sun park between rows stand outside myself the only other thing is nothing
About the Author: Jason Baldinger was recently told he looks like a cross between a lumberjack and a genie. He’s also been told he’s not from Pittsburgh but is the physical manifestation of Pittsburgh. Although unsure of either, he does love wandering the country writing poems. He’s penned fifteen books of poetry the newest of which include: The Afterlife is a Hangover (Stubborn Mule Press) and A History of Backroads Misplaced: Selected Poems 2010-2020 (Kung Fu Treachery), and This Still Life with James Benger. His work has appeared across a wide variety of print journals and online. You can hear him read his work on Bandcamp and on lps by The Gotobeds and Theremonster.
Image Credit: Arthur Rothstein “Type of land on project at Las Cruces, New Mexico. Note large yuccas” (1936) Public Domain photo courtesy of the Library of Congress
As It Ought To Be 