cooling tower by Jason Baldinger

drinking chili
out of a foam cup
at 80 miles an hour
past the methane cracker
glass river reflects
a small city scaffolded

the serial killer
in striking distance
lived in a cabin
on a road that
bobs next to the ohio

I can't see bruce willis
driving these roads trying
to remember why he stayed
while his right hand fiddles
with a radio that never works

stacks of the nuclear power plant
overthrow the sky
rusted hills bleed orange
factories decay, metal bones

through the smoke at luann's,
backhoe rental roof next door
half collapsed. I don't say anything
her husband doesn't either

i put a $10 on the bar
a shot of ezra brooks
an iron city draft
and a vicodin
delivered

we named the combo
cooling tower
special of the house
if you ain't from around
here then don't ask

Jason Baldinger is a poet from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

 A former Writer in Residence at Osage Arts Community, he is co-founder of The Bridge Series.

 He has multiple books available including and Everyone’s Alone Tonight with James Benger (Kung Fu Treachery Press) 

the chapbook Blind Into Leaving (Analog Submission Press) as well as the forthcoming Afterlife is a Hangover (Stubborn Mule Press). His work has been published widely in print journals and online. You can listen to him read his work on Bandcamp and on lps by the bands Theremonster and The Gotobeds.