BROWSE Columns
✕
after Tom Raworth and The Four Seasons
(hang on) that red, pulpy growth
on your neck (let’s) not go
for coffee or any other (hang on)
stimulant available (let’s)
in cardboard containers.
Your office job (hang on) sucks.
Straws provided. (Let’s) walk,
backs humped like Yetis
(Let’s) (again) (hang on)
hang outside. Sloths everyone
of us (hang it all). Scrape it off
(let’s) that growth on your neck
(let’s) leave a scar wherever
you go (hang on). Leave no
trace won’t you (let’s hang on).
J. R. Thelín’s collections of poems include Last Cha Cha in Albuquerque (2017) and Breath Into Bone (2010), as well as four chapbooks: Spin: Tales from the Diamond (2025); Those Last Few Moments of Light: Poems of the Dead Boy (2023); The Way Out West (2005); and Dorrance, Narrative, History (2004). After working for many years in Development, Thelín retired as senior development researcher from University of Virginia in 2020. He is married and lives, writes, and walks in Buena Vista VA. Website: https://go.authorsguild.org/sbx/sites/jrthelinpoet/pages/60348
