ed. note: i think i wrote this some time in 1994 or it might have been 1993, anyway in college. i wrote it about jeff johnson. yeah. please, notice the line blatantly stolen from a soul asylum song and i think one of those is from a duran duran song. but i could be wrong. ironically, this was the only thing i was ever able to get into any issue of NOTA. i am sure you can understand why.

Luggage
He is a mad man laughing
at the rain
“We are all fucked,” he says
with his cherry hair falling
near an ice cream smile
Sitting in a puddle near his feet
i tell him he is god
His laughter falls in bitter
crystals from his lips
and breaks in audible cracks
against the tips of my ears
So old at the age of twenty-four
his eyes have experienced places
i cannot even dream of
He packs his emotions
in Samsonite luggage and
carries it around as if it
were weightless
This emotional baggage trails
Behind him like ducklings
After their mama
“My life is so messed up.”
and i try to pick
the hope from my eyes
with clean fingernails
And put it, like a gumdrop
on his tounge