• Poems

    Howie Good: “Dog Eat Dog”

    Howie Good

    Dog Eat Dog

    Slaves were brought from Africa to mine salt. No one gives a shit. They’re serving cocktails outdoors on Deck 7 after a day in port. I’m seated at a table with my wife and two other couples, drinking a pina colada and calculating our respective status. We had taken a tour of the island in a hired van that morning. The driver said his name was Jude. His eyes were hidden behind very dark glasses. He chattered happily as the van rattled our spines. Damage to the roads from a hurricane and mudslides four years ago still hadn’t been repaired. We passed a small shack that sold “native” trinkets. An old black woman dozed on a stool in the shade of the doorway. To harvest cinnamon, Jude was saying, you must cut down the entire tree. Black men with hard faces under shoulder-length dreads loitered on corners. Meanwhile, spindly goats wandered around loose. There were no dogs to be seen; I presumed dogs got eaten. I was frankly relieved to get back on the cruise ship. We were even in time for team trivia in the Grand Salon. The string of typographical symbols (%@$&*!) used in comic strips as a substitute for an obscenity is called a “grawlix.”

    Howie Good’s most recent poetry books are The Dark and Akimbo, both available from the Berlin publisher Sacred Parasite.

     

     

     

  • Poems

    Howie Good: “2 Dead, 6 Wounded”

    Howie Good

    2 Dead, 6 Wounded

    Her name was Natalie. They called her Samantha. Natalie/Samantha was 15.
    There’s talk she was bullied.  She attended a private Christian academy,
    Abundant Life. 2 killed, 6 wounded in Wisconsin school shooting,
    the headlines said. Natalie/Samantha was dead but uncounted
    in the tally of victims, excluded from our sympathy,
    banished below. Even as I’m thinking these things
    I’m debating if these are things I should be thinking.
    Natalie/Samantha shot and killed a teacher and
    a student and then herself. She brought the gun from home.
    Investigators are looking for a possible motive.
    Christmas was only just about a week away.

    Howie Good is author of the poetry book, The Dark, available from Sacred Parasite, which will also publish his book, Akimbo, in 2025.

  • Poems

    Howie Good: “The Trolley Problem”

    Howie Good

    The Trolley Problem

    Three kids are playing on the trolley tracks,
    oblivious to the trolley bearing down on them.

    You can save the kids, but only by pushing
    a really, really fat man with a job and a family
    in front of the trolley to divert it from its path.

    The surprised look in his eyes is like the cry of a bird.

    You will understand when I show you.

    Howie Good is a professor emeritus at SUNY New Paltz whose newest poetry book, The Dark, is available from Sacred Parasite, which will also publish his forthcoming book, Akimbo, in 2025.