by Casey Killingsworth
You said all that sugar would kill me, but after all these years I still eat cookies
before dinner. So there. You said getting a job instead of going to college would
guarantee me a hard life and, well, you were sort of right about that one, but when
I look back through the tough times and old poems I guess it was worth it, something
to write down, to capture and glorify suffering like it was a firefly. And remember
that woman at my kid’s recital, the one who when she met me found out I was the son
of Doctor Killingsworth and when I told her I was a truck driver said, “No, really, what do you
really do?” and you stuck up for me? You thought the world would end when you end
and maybe it will. You thought what we casually call everything would become part of the same maw
you became, but look here at this smile, look here at these cookie crumbs
between my shiny cavities, look here at this beautiful world.