Slip

Slip

Slip on the ice
and down the slope
and grab on nails biting
into soil and snow
as you claw to reach the top again.

Slip of the tongue
is what got you here
and what scares you most
is you can't go back.

-Matthew Koutzun

Why Are You Still Up?

Why Are You Still Up?

Why are there still seagulls screaming
at 4:23 in the morning?

-Matthew Koutzun

Five of Spades and Meeting You Tonight.

Five of Spades and Meeting You Tonight

Once I left, I wandered home.

Dizzy and itchy eyed
(from playing with the cat I shouldn't have
instead of the cat I should have)
I, awe struck by the night,
was struck by spade and shovel on the ground-
five to be exact-
laying face down on the sidewalk;
risqué blue cover: face up.

I palmed it and kept it as my memento.

Who cares if it means bad luck to some fortune teller.

I'll make my own meanings as I please.

-Matthew Koutzun

Still Fresh in the Night

Still Fresh in the Night

Walking home at 2:55
it's all still fresh in the night.
Walking the streets half lit
still have the shine from the sunlight
lit by numerous, multiple bulbs.

Spotlighting trees
highlighting and contrasting
branch and leaf from the night.
Each sprig like a mint leaf
curling and blooming from bud.

Delicate green
and softened by post lamp orange
everything is chilled in the night.
Preserved and sealed
in damp moonlight.

-Matthew Koutzun

I Never Said It'd Be Easy Living With A Contradiction

I Never Said It'd Be Easy Living With A Contradiction

I'm your rebel baby,
your lost cause son-of-a-bitch,
a rewind passage
and backward progression in one.

I'm forward passiveness
gimme-gimme generous
giving hedonist
and plagiarist of creation.

Oh baby, come forward,
and I'll age you back to youth,
another trip around the sun
and you'll be wiser and younger for it.

Wasting youth on the old
never will taste as good
as it does in the sun
on the beach in December.

So be my innocent convict-
my honoured son of God-
a fast-forward brick wall
and my future crumbing in none.

-Matthew Koutzun