New Poems: Jon Bennett

Donner 

 

Just past Twin Bridges  

a snow chain broke 

lashing the wheel like a whip 

so I got out  

and lay in the slush to fix it 

It was 4am, no cell service, freezing 

and I pulled at the octopus of wire 

until my fingers were numb 

I knew a man in Reno  

with a problem 

and a big wallet 

and although I got his money 

the Sierras wanted revenge 

As a last resort 

I took off the wheel 

but the car shifted in the muck 

slipped from the jack 

and pinned my arm 

After yelling for a while  

I thought I heard 

a large animal 

and it was then I remembered  

Donner Summit, 

how one minute 

you’re looking a man in the eye 

and the next 

he’s in your stomach. 

-

Strippers 

 

I was only 14 

but I had a friend who knew someone 

and we got a job stripping 

the covers off paperbacks 

When a bookstore can’t sell something 

they return it to the distributor, 

romances, mysteries, magazines, 

the distributor in turn sends the covers 

back to the publishers 

to prove they weren’t sold 

The warehouse we worked at 

happened to be gay owned 

they had Honcho, Blue Boy, Torso 

a real eye opener to me 

but they also had 

Club, Gallery, Hustler, Chic, Juggs 

and it was all destined for the trash pile 

I was a morbidly obese preteen 

and no one paid attention to me 

as I left with boxes 

of stripped science fiction and porn, 

the substance worthless 

without those  

precious covers. 

-

Smackulon Lord of Junk 

 

The doctors had put me under 

with fentanyl and midazolam 

and I was having a dream 

Smackulon, the Lord of Heroin, 

was sitting at a bar 

and pushed a shot glass toward me 

“Don’t be a wuss,” he said  

When I drank this magic liquor 

a doorway opened 

to my colon 

and Smackulon and I 

walked through, arm in arm 

We saw gladiola-like microbes, 

fluorescent lichens, cawing crows, 

a chocolate river 

and a fissure to Hell 

where all the cancer 

was leaking out 

Then Smackulon shoved me 

headfirst into that fiery place 

and when they woke me  

I found  

I was still 

in a world of shit. 

---

Bio:

 

Jon Bennett writes and plays music in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood. You can find his work on most music streaming websites. A collection of his poems is available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Leisure-Town-Jon-Bennett/dp/B09NRK1N79/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3LJF1VA7QW8O&keywords=jon+bennett+leisure+town+poetry.  You can connect with him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067752415341.

Featuring Jon Bennett

Super

“Help me clean the sidewalk,” 

says the super

He’s large and crazy

so I try to stay on his good side

We uncoil a hose in the basement

and feed it through a grate

to the street

“Just cleaning the sidewalk!” he says

I turn on the water

The first junkie he hits

swings a grocery bag at him

so he sprays her in the face

Then someone runs over

and takes a swing at him

and they get the hose too

Soon we’re all soaking wet

but at least the junkies are leaving

“Sometimes you got to 

clean out the filth,” says the super

and I nod but

I still feel dirty.

-

Sharko

Since he’d been a choir boy

he had a good shtick in the missions,

a week of good deeds

and they’d give him the keys

Then he’d rob the poor box

and go somewhere else

In New Mexico he hit a big score

and holed up 

in an Albuquerque flophouse

with 4 cases of Muscatel

He got esophageal hemorrhoids,

and gin blossoms, but the worst thing

were his feet

It was a rare condition 

called Charcot’s disease

(pronounced ‘Sharko’)

His feet swelled to the size 

of watermelons

and when they shrank back down

were permanently disfigured

Go ahead, look it up

it’s a thing

Since then everyone calls him ‘Sharko’

but he doesn’t rob

poor boxes anymore,

he’s too slow

to get away.

-

Leisure Town

My mom had lived there

so I should’ve felt bad about it

but I was too high to care

“We got one,” said Larry

he had the binoculars

An ambulance passed

and we watched from a block away

as the EMTs came out

with a lady on a gurney

followed by an old man

who talked to the driver 

and then went back inside

“Well...” said Larry

“Well...” I said

If the old man didn’t follow the ambulance

we were sunk

But then the garage opened

and the old man drove out

It was very unlikely

there were any other family members

but just to be sure

we knocked before

we went on in.

---

More of Jon Bennett's recent work can be found on sPARKLE+bLINK, The Rye Whiskey Review and Punk Noir Magazine.  

Featuring Jon Bennett

My Work is Done

I was sober 6 months
before fixing
my smashed chairs
I went
to the hardware store
bought brackets
drilled holes, etc.
When it was done
I was still sober
but with
mended furniture
So I did
what I always do
these days
I sat down
to wait
for tomorrow.

--

Face Time

It was the heater core

you turn the car’s fan on

and if the windshield fogs up

and it smells like coolant

it’s the heater core

So I went to the Chinatown mechanic

and said, “look, it’s the heater core”

and he looked at the fogged up windshield

and said, “ok, $700”

which is cheap, you have to take

the whole dashboard out to get at it

When I came back the mechanic said,

“I broke the dashboard lens,

but I ordered one off eBay, come back

when I’m not so busy and I’ll

stick it in”

so I said, “ok”

A month passed, he didn’t call

I went by the place

it wasn’t busy, and I said

“look, put it in, you said you would

and change the oil

while you’re at it”

He didn’t like that

me ordering him around

in front of his assistant

he didn’t like it at all

but he said, “ok”

I’d heard about ‘face’ in Chinese culture

and I was worried 

when I picked up the car

Back home I checked the oil

he’d overfilled it by five quarts

which is bad, it’ll rupture your gaskets

and when I went to drain it

the nut was barely finger tight

ready to go

at any time

I changed it out

and never went back

to the C-town mechanic again

He was cheap, but in a way

I got what I deserved.

--

Skin Tag

“You smell like a man,” I said

it was the meanest thing

I could think of

“No, no true!” she said

Her scars were healed,

her ass was

a little too pumped up

but other than that

she was my type

 “You do, like a man...” I said

she didn’t really

and although she could still

hit like one

I always hit

where it hurt

worse.