Three Poems by Olin Wish

NICE THINGS

We want nice things

And will give our lives

Gladly for them

An inch at a time

A day at a time

In service of others – owners

Those we barely know

Who will never know us

Never – not an inch or a day

They will never know

These things we do

Hoping to one day

Be like them

Never hear the private pep talks

In the mirror before the

Day has even started

Asking, goading

What is it worth to you

Another day

Another inch

Another foot in the grave

In pursuit of nice things

---

GONE OR COMPLETELY ERASED

All the actors in it are gone

Or completely erased

That time when I was

Too dumb to realize

How good it was

Poorer than I’ve ever been

And richer than I am now

Love is free

And so is friendship

Maybe that’s what they

Meant about the best things

Happens all the time

To the insignificant fools

Who don’t deserve it

Stand there, years later

With their hand out

Remembering how it was

When that shadowy, dark-haired

Cur slinks past

Disappears across the railroad

Tracks and with it, youth

And all the actors who are gone

Or completely erased

---

THEY TOO OPT OUT

Plenty people have died

Under the watchful eye

Of a crucifix

God didn’t care then

So stop asking now

Your hunt and peck methodology

I’ve seen before

In my garden

In my garage –

A field mouse who has lost all fear

Of man makes a nest in a plastic shopping bag

The way those claws

Wordlessly knit – Yes, I’ve seen and

Heard your kind before

They too gave a shit

Kept a junk drawer full of instruction

Manuals to outdated appliances

They haven’t owned in ten years

They too opted for grape juice whenever possible

Over the real article

They too sighed the dust off the mouse turds

In the attic and breathed deep

They too opt out

And please don’t squeal when

The little nameless scurry out

Between bare feet

Dragging toothpicks they intend

To die upon –

Read me this bedtime story in broad daylight

And laugh with me into unconsciousness

Sort nuts from bolts

And put in empty prescription bottles and wait and say thank you

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These poems were written under the pseudonym Olin Wish. Olin Wish wants a book deal real bad. He holds a day job that puts him in close proximity to the criminally insane instead. It might be rubbing off on him. Who knows? His favorite hobbies include, comic books, x-ray vision, and trying to avoid a violent stabbing death. Olin currently resides in West Virginia, but travels around a lot. He has an ex-wife and three children. So basically, he's living his best life. Aside from being lost in the woods, Olin is a regular contributor to Drunk Monkeys Literary Journal, Kleft Jaw, and Unfading Daydream, among others.