Diego Isaias Hernández Méndez, Convertiendse en Characoteles / Sorcerers Changing into Their Animal Forms (detail), 2013, oil on canvas. Arte Maya Tz’utujil Collection.
At the Loose Noose
Eliseo says, “One day
I will pay with my body
for all the money
I’m making now.”
On the wall, a page
torn from an art book.
“I found myself:
I’m sitting on a barstool,
the one that drunk sat on
who claimed, ‘In Denmark,
the drinking man is king, but
in Sweden, he’s shit.’
All of those towns
look exactly the same
when the big rubber
curtains are shut.”
From the poster
it’s impossible to tell
if Cronus is devouring his son
or throwing him back up.
Kevin Barents lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His poems have appeared in Slate and Meridian. (updated 1/2009)