A Literary Arts Journal
Matt Mauldin
2
poems
"Formerly a singer and songwriter in the Atlanta hardcore punk music scene, I composed and arranged song lyrics over many years, with several album and CD releases. A longtime poet, my first book, entitled Patterns of Reconciliation, was released in late 2017 through Robot Enemy Publications, whose previous releases include Robert Medina’s Denvoid and the Cowtown Punks and Sonny Kay’s Headspaces. I have recent poetry soon-to-be published in Event Horizon Magazine Issue #3."
twitter: @Matt_Mauldin
images: Creative Commons and Public Domain
Payday Loan (Tom’s book)
This earth is running out of water
I offer a twenty, but you’ll take fifty
in advance of forgotten payoff
solace is a four-letter word
we’re taking it to the bank
breaking it off into crumbling little bits
rumbling pieces
spreading it around
rewritten morals of the story
rising angst filtered through shame
lust-manifested seedlings
pushing bulbs
sprawling roots
down, drying along these racks
concentrating efforts withering
across time and in the sun
Eerie Morning Sun, Here
God what a balancing act
the news ringing out in siren call
cutting through static air
complacency
it’s too much to compete
with whatever else is going on
fulfillment before the desecration
the ground we walk
you and I we’re stuck
in a place where novel concepts
are worn like thinning
tread on the bottom of our shoes
every morning the sun
casts an eerie glow in shadows
glossing over
all sense of urgency and sedation
no one gets what they want
here everywhere else the world
dies off around us eroding
its banks and rotting
where the water cuts
a line in sediment’s stain
drifting across the periphery
wafting across our vision
the road to hell
unraveling increments
paved with feigned nobility
soiling its wear in cracks of the soul
intentions creep in
and wear resignation eating
from the inside savoring
flesh of the host