Ken Quit Rock n’ Roll

to take care of a baby
and a woman who was
tired of his shit

the kid’s grown now
off to college and Ken
hasn’t picked up a guitar since

but sometimes
in between cans of peas
and boxes of stuffing,
he remembers the sound

the thunder of a thousand hands clapping,
the dig of metal strings,
the sweat down the back of his neck
a chorus of screams is warmer
than any embrace.

But the job isn’t so bad,
sometimes he even finds peace
bailing his cardboard
while nodding his head
to the rhythm of breaking boxes

 

This poem also appears in Former Lives of Saints, a collection of poems by Damian Rucci and Ezhno Martin.

 

About the Poet:  Damian Rucci is a writer and poet from New Jersey whose work has previously appeared in Eunoia Review, Beatdom, Indiana Voice Journaland basements and coffee shops around the United States. He is the author of two chapbooks of poetry Tweet and Other Poems (Maverick Duck Press 2016) and A Symphony of Crows (Indigent Press 2015) as well as a split with Ezhno Martin Former Lives of Saints (EMP 2017). Damian founded the Poetry in the Port reading series and is the poetry editor at Blue Mountain Review.

 

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