from “PAINT IT BLACK”
It was not easy having a monk for an older brother,
one who never misbehaved, one who practiced
asceticism from an early age, refusing most treats.
Saying he didn’t need anything at the Dairy Queen,
Save your money Mom and Dad. Or hitching up his
pants with a Don’t worry, these will last just fine.
His incident reports always lined up a chain of facts
that stopped at me. While, lagging two years behind,
I had trouble telling a story straight, with too much
of my father’s gift for hyperbole. . .
This autobiographical poem appears in Avoid Ninja Stars, the new collection just released by Bank-Heavy Press. It will be included in What We Did With Old Moons in November.
From the Bank-Heavy Press Mission Statement:
“Bank-Heavy is a philosophy, religion, style, non-sense, and perfect sense. Poetry, fiction and art shouldn’t need to conform for recognition. Here at Bank-Heavy we have one major goal, to bring great poetry and fiction to print, while building community. If it captures us in nets, makes us cry, giggle, skip and enrages us we want to hear it. We tear up at the sight and sounds of fresh, raw, energy in any shape or form that is fiction or poetry.”
