Friday, August 10, 2018

The Concert. by Daniel Crocker



Tommy Moon stood upon the unstained
deck of his parent's farmhouse
strumming a broom like a guitar

No one knew, but he thought
he was Hank Williams Jr.
and the dark woods his audience

Now and again, he would stop
and say something to the crowd

This next number . . .
Thank you, thank you!

He had the voice of an angel

After a while, he came back inside
ignoring his parents, who he was already
beginning to suspect were insects
in human skin

He was 17 years old

He walked back onto the deck
for an encore. “A Country Boy
Can Survive”

He's just pretending
his parents tried to convince each other
but for the first time
they were starting to worry. 




Daniel Crocker's work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Hobart, Big Muddy, New World Writing, Stirring, Juked, The Chiron Review, The Mas Tequila Reviewand over 100 others. His books includeLike a Fish (full length) and The One Where I Ruin Your Childhood (e-chap with thousands of downloads) both from Sundress Publications. Green Bean Press published several of his books in the '90s and early 2000s. These include People Everyday and Other Poems, Long Live the 2 of Spades, the novel The Cornstalk Manand the short story collection Do Not Look Directly Into Me. He has also published several chapbooks through various presses. His newest full length collection of poetry, Shit House Rat, was published by Spartan Press in September of 2017. He was the first winner of the Gerald Locklin Prize in poetry. He is the editor ofThe Cape Rock (Southeast Missouri State University) and the co-editor of Trailer Park Quarterly. He's also the host of the podcast, Sanesplaining, about poetry, mental illness and nerd stuff. He is a bipolar, bisexual Gemini living the cliché.

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