Outside the bathroom window by. Mike Zone

The man in the yellow hat

stares down his rusted toilet

swirling- pondering death

he knows better

having chances after chance

to shuffle the mortal coil

while still a fugitive

poisoning poets

pointing murderers to friends

once upon a time dissidence meant resistance

instead of a bargaining chip for dying lives

outwardly scarred and internally deformed

awaits the butcher’s assistant, strumming his blue guitar

soon she will be dead like her mother, sister, father

(an old country woe)

shuts his blinds

without country nor home

next time he’ll use the service station bathroom

across the street- it’s less haunted

it’s inherited

the owner is royalty

Mike Zone is the author of Void Beneath the Skin, Fellow Passengers: Pubic Transit Poetry, Meditations & Musings and Better than the Movies: 4 Screenplays. He is the co-writer of the graphic novel series American Anti-hero from Alien Buddha Press. His poetry and stories have been featured in: Beatnik Cowboy, Horror Sleaze Trash, In Between Hangovers, Mad Swirl, Rasputin Poetry, Synchronized Chaos, Triadae Magazine and Your One Phone Call. He scrapes by in Grand Rapids, MI