funky aged ham
pale as a Christmas star
like skiing in Aspen
mashed potato gilding
off cornices
cranberry gems
collapse
dinner roll walls and greased gravy ponds
cannot hold back the trash
when they stand
on forked feet
of molded, mangy
mushy fat ham
centerpiece left to accidentally slow cook
(thanks Uncle Fred, we really didn’t need that)
abandoned, collapsing
now
the night breaks us
with it
French Toast and a Live DJ
too early to wake up
too late to sleep
too sober to get down
breakfast is meant
to be silent
near solemn
over my French toast
I grit furred teeth
as the café is wracked
by a DJ’s table-rattling
milk-curdling
egg-scrambling
beat box to hell, howling
garbage disposal, demon despoiling
my syrupy communion
lost grace on my tongue
Tain Leonard-Peck is a writer, actor, monologist, and model. He paints and composes music, and is a competitive sailor, skier, and fencer. He is the Poet Laureate for West Tisbury, Martha’s Vineyard. Among his awards, he won #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence, the first place Poetry Fellowship to the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, and Honorable Mention for the Creators of Literary Justice Award, by IHRAF, the largest human rights art festival in the world. His work has been published in numerous literary journals. He is completing his first novel.
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