“Owwww! Have mercy!”
-Dude Love, April 20, 1998
open-mouthed & looking / for honesty & understanding / i was—
a sucker? / some serious soulmate? / a heinous / many, many vicious / evil?
bone-gold / we were / Stone Cold / little / & lethal / we wait—
unforgiven? / forgiven? / willing to end this? / bygones forgotten?
o, if you forgive / that would be
mercy
Josh Shepard's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Waxwing, Bureau of Complaint, The Daily Drunk, The Lunch Break Zine, Sledgehammer Lit, Hooligan Magazine, HAD and elsewhere. He lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He tweets about poetry and professional wrestling @JoshShepard