Poetry of Issue #7        Page 59

Nepotistic Scourge

i wanted to start my own franchise
get married to my college sweetheart
have kids
and stand out from the shadows
of a family who splintered
into opposing teams

i fumbled beyond the altar
drank scotch to impotency
and took up smoking
on my wedding day

i sit here, divorced

sixty days off drugs
and i wonder what
my dead mother is up to
and if i should write
my father a letter
while he ages in prison

while i ponder another
bump in the lonesome road
and break every link of
these chains
and pump the gas
on this lagging wagon
toward a destiny
behind the fog of
this life to a corner
of time's sandbox
where I belong

(Originally Published in The Cape Rock)

  Kevin Ridgeway