Bob Gossom — Poetry & Performance

Two Dreams

TWO DREAMS The room was breathingthe music light and 1960’sHe could feel the constraintof the Marine aviators in the corneras they fit themselves to the roomCocktails were simplebourbon, waterNext to him, his Mom and DadAs the dream started  to fadehe rememberedhis father was deadso quicklyhe turned to him, saying “Give me a hug”They kind of hugged […]

The Ballad of Bushmeat and Roadkill [explicit]
& Backstory

THE BALLAD OF BUSHMEAT AND ROADKILL  orA Treatise on Ecological Disaster Bushmeat and Roadkill  walk into a barToasting with sour bourbon they savor  the burn and belly fire  which lights up their  dwindling eyes  then slam  their bar glasses  down for another oneRoadkill plays Rampage on the jukebox  she splinters a pool cue  picking her teeth  with the shardsBushmeat runs his tongue through  the card reader  gumming up […]

Culvert and Copse

I walk a serpentine paththrough the culvertThe concrete planking extendsfirst from one side, then the otherto slow rushing waterIt’s dry and dark nowas I wind my way through I come out into a wide expanseof close-cut grassHundreds of yards to either sideare newish housestheir trees still small, but growing Every hundred yards or sothere is […]

Flowing
& Backstory

Dedicated to Kris Kristofferson. An homage to Me and Bobby McGee FLOWING Cold, wet, dusk Hitchhiking in the rain Lost in the Willamette Valley in LA clothes He didn’t know why she stopped but she did The truck heater was a meal sending life back to his wet denim legs “A year in LA was […]