Two Poems by Jason Bates
What Would Allen and William Do?
by Jason Bates
I saw the best minds of my generation contented by convalescence, shooting at daydream enemies,
dragging themselves through cubicle mazes looking for
a looser necktie,
bearded skeletons looming over printers
like junkies on a chill midnight
with dreams, and nicotine fixes, hovering forever
just five, ten, twenty minutes away,
who are envious of men who have less life but face
outwardly of having more freedom,
who jump down from tall couches only to land on
the coldest wood flooring that money can buy,
who fight back against the Ugly Spirit with passive
aggressive panache,
I am with you in Ginsberg
where my howls are bitten tongues,
I am with you in Burroughs
where my mind soaks in red Yage punch,
I am with you in here
where we may never escape
where we do not hide the madness.
The Girl Who Wore a Beret like She Didn’t Care that it Was a Beret
by Jason Bates
i.
She fits into a hug
like we were adding
pieces to a puzzle
started years
before
Left out
on a table – edges complete;
the corners filled in
Scattered pieces wait
in the box
like so many pairs
of broken glasses
ii.
Rebellious,
we walked on the grass
after
feeling the embrace
of masoned arms
iii.
Photographic evidence
on kosher film
frozen, not posed
I passed
on the opportunity
to snap one back
when you leaned
against
the tree –
Marlboro man style
Jason Bates will interject movie quotes into conversations even when the person on the other end has never seen the movie being quoted. His writing has appeared in Before I Leave...Lit Zine, Figroot Press, and aLiteration Magazine, and upcoming in River City Poets Anthology. He is also the founder of Spider Mirror Journal.
Image by Erica Zabowski, found on Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/rHJJm
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