piss test. by Ben Newell

Clutching this warm cup,

I exit the restroom

and hand it over.  

The nurse empties its contents

into 2 vials

then has me initial each.  

A total waste of time—

Marijuana, meth, ecstasy, coke, heroin.

Fuck drugs.  

I’m a runner.  

And when that doesn’t work

I just get drunk.  

Ben Newell dropped out of the Bennington Writing Seminars during his first semester, eventually resuming his studies at Spalding University where he earned an MFA.  His first full-length poetry collection, Fuzzball, is forthcoming from Epic Rites Press.