The Saltwater Curse of Florida

I touched the world

with SSRI numbed

death trips to dull the

ache of her auburn memory

while suicide attempts

disguised themselves as

recreation with enemies


I followed a blonde whore

of Babylon to a shore of

sin and threw stolen Xanax footballs

across ocean waves of teeth

and blacked out the sodomy

because it was just too damned much


Overdosed in a hospital and

drank charcoal shots from paper

cups while a cop stood in a doorway to hell

and a doctor ignored me because he

said he had other patients that wanted to live

and had better insurance coverage


Cut a sleeved sonofabitch with a

butcher knife because he vowed to

put me under with nunchuks swinging in

moonlit absurdity while blood splashed on

my jacket and drool flowed down his screams

as I ran away from the saltwater curse of Florida


-Allen Masterson


©2013 Jerry Allen Masterson