panther hollow lubrication by Jason Baldinger

it wasn't the night security

almost caught him pissing
in a potted plant, it was wild
turkey and pbr, panther hollow
lubrication, mostly competent
velvet underground covers
here comes the ocean
 
the reverend was blackout
blotto into the wall
outside his apartment
fractured his wrist
a fact hidden till the next day
 
that winter was mid shelf
bottom shelf tours
the snow would come
the next night
twenty five inches deep
 
my housemate and I
run the penn ave iditarod
to dj a valentine shindig
we tried to neutral slide
down 40th, couldn't
bailed to an open grocery
if the weather wanted hostages
at least we'd have limes
 
in the snowdrift dunes
the icehole days to come
no one would come
to the next gallery show
canceled. the touring band
talked about nothing
except jared leto

maybe you don't know this

but leto owns a decommissioned
military base in laurel canyon
not far from where charles manson
was employed by the cia
to kill what they call the sixties
 
decades are decorations
skimmed surface of memories
blurred on a precipice
of collateral damage
and barely keeping shit together
another hangover close at hand
 
in nicotine and suicide attempts
the reverend was right
don't get your hopes up

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.