Saturday, May 10, 2025

Closing Arguments By Bruce Morton


The words the drunk speaks

Are not the effects of truth

Serum, but a vocabulary enebriate,

Pickled in a slurry of barley brine,

The fermentation of fault and gestalt

That eats away at what ails, whatever

Thought, caught or taught. So,

It pours out in the boozy breath

Of what is at the bar sworn, oaths

Far from nothing but the truth, whole

But anything but. Facts distort the stream

Of consciousness soon to be forgot by

Both sayer and listener. The ever-present

Tender has a earful of verdict on tap.







Bruce Morton divides his time between Montana and Arizona. He is the author of two poetry collections: Planet Mort (2024) and Simple Arithmetic & Other Artifices (2014). His poems have appeared in numerous online and print venues. He was formerly dean at the Montana State University library.




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