Who Shot Mr. Moonlight
          after a song by Bauhaus

Someone shoot nostalgia
in the back so I can get some sleep.
Its chattering never stops.
A constant comparison that never
existed. The future is coming
and I can’t find my pants. I’m hiding
in the bushes while all the cars go by.
Families walk past while I sit
and read. It’s exhausting, all this dying.
But better days will surely come.
I just have to try harder.
Consider the mundaneness of clocks;
I can’t turn my eyes away. We’re
all looking for something nobler. Kierkegaard
said we settle for the level of despair
we can tolerate. Wouldn’t that be nice?
To turn off the struggle and snuggle in.
The blind door in the background
of the soul, behind which there is nothing
except cheesecake. It’s better
than telling strangers about your backsplash.
I was so young, then. Fat and soft. I still am.
Watch me roll down this hill. Watch me run.

*

Raised on a rice and catfish farm in eastern Arkansas, CL Bledsoe is the author of more than thirty books, including the poetry collections Riceland, The Bottle Episode, and his newest, Having a Baby to Save a Marriage, as well as his latest novels If You Love Me, You’ll Kill Eric Pelkey and The Devil and Ricky Dan. Bledsoe lives in northern Virginia with his daughter.