Austin Davis
The 2nd Civil War
I’m sitting on my best friend’s girlfriend’s couch
in that weird place between drunk and sober
where I’ve drank too much to say I’m tipsy
but not enough to be throwing couch cushions.
Maybe I forgot to take any anxiety pills
this morning, or maybe my imagination
is even more alive after a couple beers,
but I feel like HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
“Stop Dave. Stop Dave. I am afraid. I am afraid Dave.”
Everyone is dancing, pushing each other into lamps and walls,
and I’m staring at the door, waiting for a murderous clown
to knock and offer us pizza like that old SNL skit with the landshark,
except in this version he’d probably be holding a gun from Walmart.
Drake would drop from the room. Shirtless Dan
would burp a couple times and fall to the kitchen floor.
The red solo cups would lose their capitalist glow
and the horror movie clown would announce to the whole party
that Trump had just signed off on The Purge
by blasting us all to oblivion us until all that’s left
is the slam of the front door, the step of boots on concrete,
a soft wheeze as our lungs fill with blood,
and the last bottle spilling all over the carpet.
Maybe I just need to sleep it off.
Maybe it’s time to go to bed. Maybe
I’ll wake up tomorrow morning
with a headache and an intense craving
for kung pao chicken. Or maybe
I’ll blink and all my friends will be dead.
Austin Davis is a poet, writer, and spoken word artist from Mesa, Arizona. Austin’s poetry has been widely published in literary journals and magazines, both in print and online. Most recently, Austin’s work can be found in Pif Magazine, Ink in Thirds, Folded Word, The Poetry Shed, In Between Hangovers, One Sentence Poems, and Tuck Magazine. Austin’s first chapbook, The Moon and Her Ocean, was published in 2017 by Fowlpox Press. Cloudy Days, Still Nights, Austin’s first full length book of poetry, was published in May, 2018 from Moran Press.
SUBMIT to What Rough Beast via our SUBMITTABLE site.