THE FOLLOWING POEM WAS SELECTED IN WINGWORD POETRY PRIZE 2023 LONGLIST.

met up outside of town,

for sugar with some coffee for my diabetic heart.

talked about the heat, the blisters on my feet.

took me 105 days to get here,

i kept losing my way on smoke-filled streets with pretty girls.

girls with satin skin, vicious roots and,

maxed out cards drawing straight white lines.

dragged myself out from the cracked mausoleum,

made it to the picket fences,

turned right back around

and lost my sanity in the woods with blazing ants,

and skyscrapers of memories dripping with honey.

took me a while to get to you again,

i think it took 200 days.

the sugar is not sweet enough,

and i wish i could taste it.

drenched in sweat, my body twitches -

like a worm desperate to escape death.

my entrails hate me,

they wish to jump out and choke me -

they told me.

took me a while to get to you,

i’ve been floundering for years,

i think it was some 5.

i could be wrong, my memory doesn’t serve me right.

could be the pseudoephedrine or the novocaine.

outside this ghost town is where life starts.

i sit in front of you, with now cold coffee,

nervous fingers and mountains of regret.

like a cracked cup of china;

you look pretty, in a damaged way.

i see you, happy and sober,

i wish i got to us sooner.

(sobriety)