Love is A Heat from Hell Not Meant for the Summer • Forrest Evans

I haven’t seen the sun rise
since I walked away.
Missing you is the closest
thing to the sunshine I miss.
The heart is a lonely hunter
and also a round of steel wool.
My God, no one told me love
is the passionate fire from hell.
She put her love on me
and all the music made sense;
all the Donny Hathaway and
Bill Withers made sense— my God.
Baby, missing you is the closest
I’ve gotten to a full day.
It’s night all damn day long
and the lonely are always out.
I can’t live alone or without a spouse.
The demons won’t leave me
alone and they don’t come from
the past anymore—
Missing you is closest I’ll
get to the warmth of full day,
a sunshine, a sunny day in Savannah,
or Sothern Comfort and sunset with you.
Missing you is the safest way
to be sorry and vulnerable,
comfortable and lonely.
The safest way to survive and love you.

Boatload of Pain • Gerard Sarnat

summer vacation
marina job Mr. Shaver
     the high
school shop teacher
got me out of pity
    even though
my spring semester
           wooden ox cart
    was a fucking
             disaster,

 screwing
    around, mostly
hammered,
       this bad boy 
let down Dad  
who really should’ve
             known
       our kinda Jew 
can’t use 
              tools

      which
              privileges 
were revoked
      by my wife
thirty years ago
       after several 
   wangdang
                doodle 
expensive compressor
       misadventures