i want to believe

God is a grifter. No doubt
there’s talent in these streets.

The sound of tents rising
into body shop air
is that of corpses 
of the oldest trees in town 
resurrected, strung up, molested
by MacArthur geniuses. 

When Kaush said he couldn’t 
do any shrooms
‘cause the FBI won’t let him 
join if he’s done drugs 
in the past three years I said Right? 
How arbitrary! My wife
said did you know? I said 
I'd looked into it 
decades ago:
I'd wanted to do 
X-Files shit. 

Now my face is flush with addiction. 

I've just read an article
in the Paris Review
on whether poetry has any street cred. 

I don't know but it does 
have plenty of edgelords like 
am I smoking this
because I want to or - 

God is a grifter. Solid waste 
is hiring. 

Joseph Goosey is the author of the chapbook STUPID ACHE (Greybook Press.) His debut collection of poems, Parade of Malfeasance, was a finalist for the 2019 42 Miles Press Poetry Award and is forthcoming from EMP Books. 

He lives in North Carolina.