“Nobody’s Pawn” by Jonas Kyle-Sidell

Screw you, let the light fall
where it may. It’s not my fault
I abhor symmetry – each concedes

don’t let depression


a little distraction. . . Ah the hell with it, hang your picture

get in our way.

how you may, but strike true! that the distance
between bolt and thunder
comes quicker than expected, and louder –

-----

Open that goddamned

Passive-a-
ggressively spinning, of course, it’s
the world, but we can
lie to each other
just to get by. Then comes the night, forthright,

window, there. . .

by nature, with its way of throwing
itself out there – spectacular!

Blast, over just you and me.

resentment, now, to watch
lie stare at truth (hold steady your
saxophone, man), like glass breaking.

-----

Take my love and hock it –
throw it up

I’m nobody’s
pawn,

to the wind

let it go –

(takes a
hurricane, man),                                  let it rain
guilt. . .

this freedom
song:

we’re exactly
what we’re not.


Jonas has had poems published in the L.A. Review, Gargoyle, Pearl, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Main Street Rag, The Melancholy Dane, Paradigm, Welter, and Smile Hon! You're in Baltimore. He is currently an adjunct English teacher at the Community College of Baltimore County. He's got more where this came from.