Detective D-Beat
-After Wolfbrigade
I am that dick who stalks the bricks
In Cowtown.
I am that ghost who digs up bones;
No scofflaw.
A private eye on the sly:
Cowtown Speedwolf.
Mobs named firms set the terms
In Cowtown.
Dig my method and my mantra:
Fuckin’ chaos.
Slick gumshoe, you know who:
Cowtown Speedwolf.
Bad Beat Bump Stock
Mark time by the state
of our falling New Babylon.
Keep company counter
the rhythm of every last love.
Kneel beside brother,
companion, dragon, owl.
Hold parliament of meat
in Babylon’s streets.
Broker a deal between lower
violence and upper
fraud. Negotiate
with a scratch-off.
Bricknose, Back Out There
Two Mules for two Uptown.
Post-happy-hour price gouge
but I arrived early to get several
down alone for a cut rate ease.
The shaken lovely with the same
name as both our exes
mentions missing a man
on the highway
sitting cross-
legged in the center lane
of U.S. 75. The pickup
behind did not avoid
The Concrete Martyr.
My whispered moniker
for him,
not theirs.
Let’s plot that point—together!—
where suicide & martyrdom collide.
The lovely blinks back.
First dates are awkward and too much
of our world is catered to cars….
My words.
….can’t a guy just sit down
on the ground anymore?
Not theirs.
I should give it a try.
Why am I like this?
Try.
Their words.
Their exit.
I can't blame either of them for leaving.
The density in Dallas will get to your head
like a bricknose Ford and pavement
if you don’t cut things off.
— T.K. Edmond is a SweeTart in Fort Worth, Texas. Recent work can be found in ZiNDaily, Strukturriss, Abridged, Coffin Bell, Pidgeonholes, APOCALYPSE CONFIDENTIAL, and Exacting Clam.