By Leslie Lukas
It’s 9:37 p.m. on a Friday night
My hands smell like Dawn dish soap
The blue kind
and bleach water
Finally work is done
My clothes reek of fryer grease and garlic buttermist
Made in Wisconsin
Sitting in my cold car
I put the key in the ignition
The engine of my 96’ Corsica barely turns over
The moon illuminated the highway
Since my dim headlights don’t
I have Tropical twist cigarillos
Two for $1.69
Ride around and smoke
Blasting M83
That friend I only ever saw
At parties
Just got hit by a car last night
He’s dead now
But I still drive
Past the tire marks on the road
Still there after five months
I pray the shivers
Shooting down my body
Go away one day
But they probably won’t
After arriving to the party of the night
I trudge through the foot of snow
to the cleared out area
for the fire where everyone
Is already running around
Drunk
Everything fast
People running
Fire blazing
Smoke burning my eyes
I hate black bunnies
I hate black bunnies
I hate black bunnies
Snap of cans being opened
Car doors slamming
Wind rushing
Firewood being thrown
Onto the fire
My life and my eyes
And my mind are
Slowing down
And I just wanted it at
That moment to speed up
Again
“I'm currently a Youth Options student here at Nicolet. I look forward to attending Nicolet next year and transferring to UW-Milwaukee for my degree in English.”
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“Silent Sparkling Stars”
By Scott Fiocchi
Sing to me softly in the silken silver moonlight
Secure me solace as we gaze silently on the sparkling sea
Snap the solemn sound of the crashing waves with a smile
Submerse yourself in the scenery
Sit with me as our eyes shyly say hello to the stars
As they shine smoothly over all the sad souls
Their sore soliloquies seeming to stray into silent space
Spiriting the voices away into a swallowing void.
"I had an idea of starting a poem based on words that started with S. This is what I came up with."
