Two Poems by Justin Hyde

at a red light

young girls

say nineteen or twenty

don't tell me
you've ever seen
teeth so white

pixie genies
in a wheeled
magic carpet
on mom and dad's dime

i can hear
their music

feel it
vibrating my seat

one of them
combs out
long brown hair
with a yellow brush

another
seems to be
talking on two cell-phones
at once

the driver

inimitable phosphorescence
sun-drenched
in angled
light

i'd like to
tap into that energy

tap
into that ass

grind them down to a pulp

smear it all over myself

change my name

and start this life
from scratch.



watching rain drip off the bare branches of a cherry tree

and all is well

so far as
the beginning
and the end
are unknown

as for now
my seven year old son
stumbles into the fold

my ex wife says
he's like watching a piece of your heart
wandering around
outside you

i say
it's more like your consciousness
and sum total of fears
being thrown in your face

then
there is this painful wart
on the bottom
of my foot

the back of my teeth
are rotting

and i judge everyone
harshly

notwithstanding

even if they gave us
blueprints
at birth

finely drawn schematics
with an
aerial view

we'd still
fuck it
up.