Transgress
Even Eve committed concupiscence,
she had it too damn good in Eden.
That’s why Eden did the same every eve
before being found, cold. She’s warm now.
As a massa damnata we might as well.
Heavenward we’d have no reason to,
but they really screwed us. Even so,
I don’t blame mom and dad, I love them.
Now I can drink and smoke, eat lots
and care little. I could muster good
and pray and wait, but the apple
didn’t fall far from that sapient tree.
I’m only as good as they made me.
Growth
It was the trunks which had charm,
I could reach the caterpillars there.
One summer there were so many
you could hear them all chewing.
As usual, I spent the days
collecting and cataloging them
before they turned into butterflies
which, like treetops, are overrated.
Shows
I’ve seen them all,
learned each episode,
but keep watching it.
There are other shows,
newer and popular,
but I like this one.
When I turn it on
I don’t need a smoke
or any company.
More than all arms,
it warms and unwinds
like a Sunday.
This is the show I need;
edifying, intriguing, safe.
And it’s all on demand.
Matilda
What we need is a Waltzing Matilda;
no ramparts, rockets, no God, just man.
Just man at his lowest and dirtiest
and proudest and most liberated.
We could still have an anthem,
but would play this one right after.
Imagine. Then they’d all stand and link
and harmonize on the hobo and his plight.
That’s the spirit in us, all of us.
We would cry, we would smile.
For we each are jolly swagmen in our ways,
supplicating with song for a soul to waltz with.
But this is America, and we never use anything
not American made.
Carson Pytell is a poet living in a small town outside Albany, NY. His work has appeared in numerous venues online and is currently available or forthcoming in print from such publications as Vita Brevis Press, The Virginia Normal, NoD Magazine, Blue Moon Lit & Art Review, Spank the Carp, Crack the Spine, Futures Trading, Down in the Dirt Magazine, Gideon Poetry Review, and Children, Churches & Daddies, among others. His debut collection, First-Year (Alien Buddha Press, 2020), will be available on Amazon and his second collection, Trails (Guerrilla Genesis Press, 2020) is in the works.
