Two Poems by Steve Calamars

from his poetry chapbook, American Violence, available at New Polish Beat.

death is harmless

it’s life you
have to watch

it’ll creep up
behind you and
slip a job around
your neck
like a noose

it’ll pull your
youth out from
under you
like a trap door

and leave you swinging
in a slow suburban strangle

by the time
you’re aware
of what’s happened

you’ll be too old
to give a shit



truth is

i’m a criminal
at heart

trapped in a
working-man’s
world

clip-boards and
blue-suits are
unnatural things

i’d feel more
comfortable with
a ski-mask
and 9mm

tossing bullets
like baseballs

instead of dodging
pot-shots from
time-clocks and
middle-management