"messiah" by John Sweet

had this addiction, was shooting pure

gold into washed-out veins while i kissed his

wife in the back seat, and he kept driving

down the same dead-end streets, past

the same barren factories

kept saying he’d know the

truth when he saw it

words wrapped in blinding flame and

each letter laid down as big as

                           the fist of god

John Sweet sends greetings from the rural wastelands of upstate NY. He is a firm believer in writing as catharsis, and in compassionate nihilism which, as luck would have it, has all the best bands. His published collections include NO ONE STARVES IN A NATION OF CORPSES (2020 Analog Submission Press) and THERE’S ONLY ONE WAY THIS IS GOING TO END (Cyberwit, 2023).