Lock your Doors

Joshua Shaffer is an American poet currently living in New Jersey.

[6packofjosh]

willpower

boyy, you got a strong heartbeat

[6packofjosh]

the human brain is a closed loop

at times my mind locks itself behind steel bars a small window looking out on burned out grass

a cat walks through the barbed wire fence going as it will

I am furious and a six inch slab of concrete is a continual static shock the lack of contact a poison

so I take a palm sander and grind my fingers to the bone

I bash my skull on the floor- but its the concrete that chips we will never win.

somewhere out in the yard

the cat is laughing as it plucks feathers from a freshly caught bird

silly me silly us

[6packofjosh]

Hermit Crabs Trade Shells Like Pokemon Cards in Junior High School

another day passing and no one has tried to kill me yet

  the sun is behind the clouds

  and so am I

  _________________________________________________________

the leaves of a tree want the same thing

  we are not one body

no roots

  find your tree

   _________________________________________________________

green tomatoes

hang

  on the decks edge

  _________________________________________________________

the community ethic -an egg

  brittle exterior, gooey cold center

  that raw protein

   _________________________________________________________

  three plug splitter

more power

[6packofjosh]

on spitting game

I don’t like talking I go on dates and just look at the girl

they get uncomfortable and crack a smile

                                  what?          

Nothing, I say

  silence is nice- crisp.

why say something when you don’t have to?

[6packofjosh]

not so nice things

I am a sweaty person

more of a dripping person really

I spend my money

on gas and cigarettes

sometimes meats

to smoke on the grill

life is simple

even through

the heat of the day

[6packofjosh]

fun shit you can do

when you come visit lets go get a drink or too and then go back to my overpriced studio apartment and have sloppy drunk sex

“but I don’t drink,”

well, lets get blue and red and white fireworks popsicles then

  “okay”

[6packofjosh]

Six Shooter

I

it rained today I got the top on the jeep just in time

  II

have you ever heard the term dry drunk?

  III

my socks sopp wetness through the hole in the heel of my left shoe

  IV

Tyler Perry, what would Jesus do?

  V

I made a pact with myself not to go to prison

  VI

87 degrees 75 percent humidity and lasagna dinner

[6packofjosh]

Poetic Shit That Happened to Me Today

ambling along in a pick-up death of responsibility looming

I drive faster, careful to stay between the lines

[6packofjosh]

Poetic Shit that Happened to Me Today: Hallucinations of Pizza

listening to Prokofiev I swear I hear bombs in the far reaches of the suburb maybe there is some fact, to the idea that a pizza diet is bad for your health

[6packofjosh]

Visit Original Link

help me hold my choppur lawd

[6packofjosh]

Visit Original Link

taking a break from poetry to chop beats.  I suck, but this shit is fun.

[6packofjosh]

POETIC SHIT THAT HAPPENED TO ME TODAY

he parks his car at the end of the hill as I'm parking charges up the street

watch yourself, or someone is gonna crack you in the head "get a grip cocksucker"           *spits in face*

he swings- to make good on his threat

I duck down and on the come up land an uppercut.

I don't fight fair, I swear- his testicles popped

"go home old man, your goose is cooked"

[6packofjosh]

POETIC SHIT THAT HAPPENED TO ME TODAY

looking for tylenol I find fifteen percocets and twelve vicodin oh, the gods tempt me so

[6packofjosh]

Visit Original Link

[6packofjosh]

[6packofjosh]

monday morning jitters

the mower almost tipped today just as I was imagining the blades rolling over me amateur sliced deli meats came to mind the thought of what a dull mower blade could do to bone and a weird thing came to pass the mower didn’t tip and I finished the lawn

[6packofjosh]

Two Tomato Plants

I swallow a fistful of seeds

a sip of water helps them grow.

all day long, I wonder which one is going to kill me

the gut lacks an imagination

a good job a pleasant wife and decent kids

  I am at war

paper drugs and noise

  I am at war

my stomach, slumbering

in the produce aisle my grandfather tells me a secret,

to make a respectable salsa take only the skins of a tomato

the rest can go to the dogs