john sweet
john sweet, b 1968, still numbered among the living. A believer in writing as catharsis. Opposed to all organized religion and political parties. His latest collections include APPROXIMATE WILDERNESS (2016 Flutter Press) and the limited edition chapbooks HEATHEN TONGUE (2018 Kendra Steiner Editions) and A BASTARD CHILD IN THE KINGDOM OF NIL (2018 Analog Submission Press). All pertinent facts about his life are buried somewhere in his writing.
because all of these poems have always been for you
and then pain or
bliss or maybe just the
sun blotted out
nodding off in a
house on fire
this other man’s wife on
her hands and knees
crying for more
crying for herself
a lifetime of
nothing
just like
everyone else
dorothea, without max
what i remember
more than anything is your
polite smile as you shut
the door in my face
what i remember are the
names i’ve
never heard before
the streets deserted and the
sidewalks piled high with
dirty snow and what i have done
here in this silence of 20 years
in this endless stream of dead
grey afternoons is make
emptiness my drug and
despair my religion
what i’ve done is surrender
it’s easy
walk away from everything
you can touch and then
there will be
nothing left that can
touch you
consider it an improvement
over what you have now
Sheila-Na-Gig online 