Two poems by John Yamrus
John Yamrus has been a fixture in American poetry for four decades. Since 1970 he has published 2 novels, 16 volumes of poetry and more than 900 poems in magazines around the world. Selections of his poetry have been translated into several languages including Spanish, Swedish, Italian, Japanese and (most recently) Romanian.
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she said
"you stink,
i can't stand
to even look at you.
every time you
lay hands on me
my skin crawls.
eat shit
and die
you bastard."
as she left the room
she didn't hear him say
"i hear THAT, darlin',
i sure hear that."
by John Yamrus
hemorrhoids
this time it’s
hemorrhoids,
and they’ve been
bleeding since Sunday.
the doctor
wants me to have
surgery,
but i’ve been
putting it off.
needless to say,
it’s a real
pain in the ass.
i’ve even resorted
to shopping in the
women’s section
in the pharmacy…
buying pads
for the blood.
with not one
single
shred of dignity left
i take my
prescription,
the preparation H
and the pads
up to the counter
to pay.
the girl looks at me
and smiles.
i can’t tell
if she’s just
being polite
or
has already figured out
that i’m useless
and old
and have
hemorrhoids.
unable to look her in the eye,
i pay,
walk out
and drive home,
sitting on a cushion,
thinking about her…
thinking:
it’s okay, kid…
it’s all yours, now.
every bit of it.
but don’t worry…
sooner or later
it catches up with you.
it always does…
eventually…
inevitably…
life
always gets you
in the end.
by John Yamrus
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