Nick Demske
Nick Demske lives in Racine, Wisconsin, and works at the Racine Public Library. He was awarded the 2010 Fence Modern Poets Series prize for a self-titled manuscript that will be published in November of 2010. He's a curator of the BONK! Performance series, a founder of the Racquetball Chapbook Tournament and is an editor of the online venue boo: a journal of terrific things. His work has appeared in Action Yes, Conduit, Sawbuck, Artful Dodge, PinStripe Fedora and other places.
Faux Hawk
for Dave Haynes
No is the new yes; hence the chic chip on this trapezius.
It matches my eyes, my first person limita
Tions. It complements my insults. Its sassy little number's neutral, potentially hazardous
By extension. The cashier tells us to have a good day.
But it's night. And we take this personally.
Night is the new day. I am violently Nick Demske, the pissy,
Second-hand trench coat of poetry. Behold my clearance discounts. I we
Ar my Nick Demske like a burkha-the lamb's wool codpiece, pessi
Mystic. I once wrote a death letter to a childhood pen pal. Now I write
Death letters to everyone, indiscriminate. You, sir, write
Love letters to no one. How common.
No (1) is the new yes, justifying our mutual molestations. Our denomin
Ator lies in faux pas, dysfashion, dysfunction. But this is a pact, in
Which I swear to write defective odes to someone I still don't hate, feigning satisfaction.