JOSHUA K. CHASE


Breach

I never signed on for this
No dotted lines
No X
No John Hancocks
Who’d have thought we’d be teenage junkies
Combing the streets for another fix
Lying in gutters with your eyes open
But because of the drunken blur
You can hardly see that it’s somebody else’s hands
Feeding you bread and pizza and pretzels
Just to sober you up
They say they only knew where the party was
Because they saw you
Heaving and hoeing and
Throwing and upping and moaning
But in the end
It wasn’t much of a party at all
It sucked
And this does too
Because now I watch my friends
I’m watching them die
Strokes and chokes and smokes
These are the ends of my ropes
I know because I can already see the hemp breaking
And I’m braking too
I’m scraping pedals at every turn
Just to leave it all behind


Joshua K. Chase is a poet and journalist
currently residing in Pahrump, Nevada. He is a staff
writer for the Pahrump Mirror and can be reached at
joshuakchase@yahoo.com






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