JAY HOPLER ~

 

Honky-Tonk Sonnet

Before cancer, I was a country.

Now—, I’m a fucking country

      Song: job gone, house gone,

            Wife diagnosed w/ Post-Traumatic Stress—


      I’m missing more organs

                          Than a looted church.
            Even my dog’s been repossessed!

            Know what I got left?

      2 years. The lifespan

            Of an average rat. My wife’s therapist

      Tells me I can use this time to find

                          Out who I really am. Lord help me Jesus,

                          I’ve wasted it, so/help me Jesus,

I know what I am: squeak.

_______________

Jay Hopler

Still Life

McSweeney's, 2022