We Used to Have Parties
The city is a kind welcome
of fire It’s on fire
I tell you not making sense
in the usual sense of the word sense
but a meteor’s bloom
The bad guys rehearsing
their latest number—
high kicks and all—the good guys watching
videos of unrest in real time
The way you high-fived me
I thought we’d have sex
Such excitement negates the self
All the cops standing still
The mask we wear is assassination
You’re cutting out
From You're Gonna Miss Me When You're Bored (Barrelhouse Books, 2014) by Justin Marks. Copyright © 2014 by Justin Marks. Used with permission of the author.
Justin Marks
Justin Marks is the author of You’re Going to Miss Me When You’re Bored (Barrelhouse Books, 2014) and A Million in Prizes (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2009), which was chosen by Carl Phillips as the winner of the 2009 New Issues Poetry Prize.
Marks is a cofounder of Birds, LLC, and lives in Queens, New York.