tcherkask

by Jesse s mitchell

illustrated by rhoda penmarq

Tcherkask Cold water is flat and through the back-marshes And along the beach, it spreads out forever… Flat, I walked across it and I wrote my name on it I made it mine… Literally. Watching us move, their eyeballs stare And look like gunshots…(what are they looking at?) But its the sunshine and silence drops On us like bombs Deep down underground explosions Like land mines Bouncy betty… Blowing dirt over our skin With Goosebumps and stray hairs (what are they looking at?) I was wearing that black Ramones shirt The one that is faded and stretched out And never looked good on either of us. I kick the sand back into the ocean. (what are they looking at…with their cold flat eyes, I swear they are dead…I almost died one time, honestly and I came right back like Odin with secret powers…what all those people looking at?) We Are just a couple of wild animals looking for a whirlwind place, a storm, a home, a view to something better. Every peasant boy and girl from Lucknow to Tcherkask, Hammersmith to Kentucky knows that there are no half-measures in plunder, Half a soul is nothing close to as good as all But you will be punished just the same.