Mark Borczon

Hunting Dinosaurs With A Needle In My Arm

I smoke roses to get high

And I get drunk on sun tea in the morning

I fix my arm tattoos with sharpie markers

And I collect artwork depicting bull fights

My joints ache as a side effect from

Medication for hypertension

My muscles ache as a side effect from

Back breaking, physical toil

I am fifty one years old

And I make twenty seven thousand

Dollars a year

I don’t believe in heaven

I do believe in vodka

I did quite well in college

But I struggle in life

I never, ever confuse

One with the other

I know that youth is privileged

And forgiving

I know that middle age

Is not

I no longer sleep on my mother’s couch

If you do I kindly invite you

To go fuck yourself

Time and endurance earn the right

To judge and so

I judge

If life is pass/ fail

Then everything leans on

Who reads the work

The bankers and the preachers

Grade the test

One way

The poets and the dreamers

Grade the test

Another way

I hunt dinosaurs with a needle

In my arm

And I sit with holocaust survivors

On the city bus

I drink rain water from a wooden

Barrel that held the body

Of a four year old girl

Killed by the Klan

Someday I’m gonna burn my work boots

Mark S. Borczon is a poet and caregiver from Erie, Pa. He will publish his first book of poetry in over twenty years through Nixes Mate press later this year or early next. He is the father of three awesome daughters who teach him love on a daily basis. In his free time he is a talented banjo player and a guitar player who knows how to find all the notes. He is terrified of the internet so this biography is written by his identical twin who loves him and admires his work as only a brother can.