American Death Poems

Alice Mae Johnson, housewife, Call’s Junction, Mississippi; December 2, 1976:

This god damned kudzu
Crawled all the way from Japan
They tell me, climbing
Every green thumb that said “Wait”




Linda Crick, beauty queen, Fort Lauderdale, FL; August 6, 1988:

All you beautiful
People, the other side of
This face, here it is:
One less chance to look at me




Michael Jarvice, investor, New York, N.Y.; March 12, 2009:

Millions gone millions
Know: I’m poor while the rest are
Penniless. A jump
From this height: on top again




Bernard “Bernie” Madoff, broker, Federal Correctional Institution Butner Medium, Butner, N.C.; October 4, 2012:

I’m sorry the way
God is sorry, believed in
Just one big Ponzi
This shiv in my neck says it



Officer Wade Limonchik, police officer, Newark, NJ; September 30, 1991:

Crackheads’re good shots
When aiming for a hit they
Like. So why’d this guy
Off me if he can’t smoke me




Maurice Free, day care attendee, Andrilla Falls, S.D.; April 2, 1967:

Fingers in my mouth
Ten toes on my feet. Do green
Eggs and ham come from
Green pigs and chickens, mommy




Benny Archman, nudist, Gray Springs, NY; May 22, 1987:

Nudity is the
Oldest sport. Everyone’s a
Winner. In the dark
At least, we’re all undressing




August Rickart, philosopher, New Haven, CT; September 20, 1934:

In the bathroom and
There’s Spinoza, grinding glass
Sunshades for shadows
Blind to spelunk Plato’s cave




David Foster Wallace, novelist, Ponoma, CA; September 12, 2008:

This is water, said
The fish to the page. Fingers
Pressed to my neck’s gills
Goodbye trout, salmon, David