DEADLY SINS

A poem in seven parts

i

wrath will
always fascinate me it’s so
easy to feed just
start with a seed then
watch it sprout fester and
bloom until you
blow up an orphanage

ii

lust brings skank
prostitutes to mind – and
itchy red bumps to your
crotch

iii

gluttony the void
that can never be
sated I found 22
packets of nuts when i
cleaned out my
desk

iv

greed makes me
think of daffy
duck when he
finds mounds of
treasure then gets
trapped in the cave to
starve
rot and
otherwise
die – surrounded
by diamonds

v

sloth has
two toes but
no motivation he’s the
reason we have dents in
our couch and that thing
called TV

vi

pride pumps
our heads like
balloons – that get
popped with a prick
from reality

vii

fear dances in our
bladders twists
knots in our
stomachs is the
glob that
gives rise to the
other six sins.

-Ryn Gargulinski.04.09.10

DOG IS GOD SPELLED BACKWARDS

the dog
chewed off his hind leg
not thinking twice not
thinking just doing it sort of
the way I moved to New York
or the way they perform abortions.

it’s easy not to think
that’s the easy part I often
meditate in traffic going the wrong way
with my eyes closed someone told me
that was dangerous
after they stopped laughing.

It’s easy to think
of gloom & doom and the way
my gerbil’s neck snapped when
I threw him against the cage
after he bit me
an accident
I hid in my brother’s room.

it’s hard
to stay solid,
to stay still, to keep hold
of the air when you are hissing
above the sunset or clunking
below the coal mines with a sickening thud
usually reserved for old men getting hit by cabs
or an old broad’s pocketbook, just don’t call her a broad,
or other things you are sorry for
that had to happen anyway.

-Ryn Gargulinski, 2001