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"high speed chase" by w v sutra



when hollywood got off the phone

some days before he found the nerve

to take his gun to bed

wanting to be already lying down

we had spoken for an hour or more

back in touch following a reunion

engineered by friends


he could not sleep he said

could not think straight

was troubled by voices in the sky

by memories in the guest room

do you remember he said

do you remember that night we ran


i do remember

we were four in the car

young and running scared

the car behind us full of killers

sabo was driving and that was good

he saved our lives that night no question

he started the beef for some bullshit fun

with a little pistol i had brought along

and there we were on a big old ride


hollywood next to sabo calm and mute

hollywood handsome and strong

carson in the back with me

and shit completely out of hand

and carson

carson the maggot

carson the fool

wanting to stop and fight


sabo had to wreck the family car

but that was good it saved us

sprinting from the wreckage

scattering into the lebanese night to safety

by the old beach road


sabo and hollywood both died headshot

selfshot in the deep safe heart of america

in their middle years

but just the other night

dead these five years past

crazy grinning sabo showed himself to me


i survive but do hallucinate

speaking with the dead i said

hey sabo where you going

with that hole in your head

that silver ghostly blood

i had to ask seeing the hole

where the bullet went in

a rapid blessing

the gun held long enough to speak


i kid myself with all this talk

of oblivion of forgetting of forgiveness

i do think of carson sometimes

and how we all disappear




w v sutra was born in Africa and raised in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, borne hither and thither on the surging tides of cold war and soft power. He has been at various times a rock musician, a public health professional, and an educator. He began writing poetry during the Covid-19 lockdown. His work can be found in various print and online journals He lives and works on a horse farm on the shoulders of the Holston Mountains in East Tennessee.

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