Two Poems, by Adrian C. Louis

Invisible Places of Refuge

Deep inside myself,

I am running out

of places to hide.

I am an old man,

a dirty old man &

the world we knew

is fading fast away.

I cannot say how I

became covered with

the cobwebs common

to poor & broken folk.

Darling, I cannot say

if I’m spider or fly.

***

My love, I pray that you

can not see me now, but

of course you can see me

& yes, I am a walking scar,

one of life’s miracles, but

you’re just a ghost, still,

the only ghost that I

dream hard about.

I will never hide from

the haunting you offer.

***

Soon I will need no

invisible places of refuge.

While other spirits float

through a dire dampness

of tears & wet kisses, I

will flitter about, brittle &

arid as pack of Top Ramen.

***

How I love my Top Ramen.

Top Ramen is my hemlock.

It shrinks my body & soul.

My body has grown thin

& my shadow so skeletal

that it often hides from me

& the palaces of memory,

from all that I’ve known.

Dear Gods of my known

& unknown universes.

I thank you for the sweet,

sweet & holy miracle

of noodles made from

the baked & pulverized

bones of poor folk.

Ratiocination

I am a ghost who hates

Rapid City, South Dakota

but I need it occasionally

like a low-dose tweeker

with a weekend habit.

Exiting late Friday mass

at some execrable saloon, I

see some idiot has barfed

a blizzard of gizzards right

next to my shiny, white SUV.

I’m guessing they’re gizzards

because the hipster bistro

across the street sells them.

Gizzards from ghost chickens.

Oh, my country…

My country ‘tis of thee

sweet land of gizzardry.

Adrian C. Louis

Adrian C. Louis grew in northern Nevada and is an enrolled member of the Lovelock Paiute Tribe. From 1984-97, Louis taught at Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota. He recently retired as Professor of English at Minnesota State University in Marshall. His most recent book of poems is Random Exorcisms (Pleiades Press, 2016). More info at Adrian-C-Louis.com