the prosperity social club by Jason Baldinger

state college morning

last motel to swallow

after seventy days 

or forty-five thousand miles

this warranty polished

in blue highways lexicon 

near enough pittsburgh

stations static homesick 

I wanna say fuck it

who needs one last reading

let’s gun it for the homestead 

the reverend is on a greyhound 

though, i'll find him in a basement

bar, sharing a whiskey neat

with a mural of chief wahoo 

we roll east 

spy on thomas brenton hart

the reverend tries making college girls 

I pull him away before he faceplants

they ain't coming to the show, babe

tremont is hidden magic

right at the precipice of the times

I know what that shit did to my city

I can't find the golden road though 

no electric grid in my pocket

instead guided by semaphore

no surprise we're late 

if this were a comic

the audience would be full

of first appearances 

rustbelt poet introductions

welcome to the topography of disappearing 

after we've said our words 

all conversation extinguished

dressed for the high life

we leave prosperity social club

to mid-summer biblical rain 

the wipers fight with fury

race the hydroplane 

lightning strobes along

to flaming lips on the stereo

will I see the lady pittsburgh again? 

the last hundred, never easy

tunnel open to this city 

an electric oasis

lights explode in my head

now enter the bardo

and sing a song of home 

friends cheer my arrival

wet and dusty and ecclesiastical 

in a pink death oubliette 

where cigarette smoke gained sentience 

it's past midnight

grant has taken vicksburg

I'm thirty-six now

no understanding of who I've become 

alcohol cleaves this addled brain

the leaving rains now and 

again, harder than before

shirt off through the wee hours

a madman, a shell, a demon

all free and unhinged madness

Jason Baldinger was recently told he looks like a cross between a lumberjack and a genie. He’s also been told he’s not from Pittsburgh, but actually is the physical manifestation of Pittsburgh. Although unsure of either, he does love wandering the country writing poems.  His newest books include: A Threadbare Universe (Kung Fu Treachery Press), The Afterlife is a Hangover (Stubborn Mule Press) and A History of Backroads Misplaced: Selected Poems 2010-2020 (Kung Fu Treachery). He also has a forthcoming book with James Benger called This Still Life. His work has been widely across print journals and online. You can hear him read his work on Bandcamp and on lp’s by The Gotobeds and Theremonster.