Contributor: Wayne F Burke

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Mahoney and me were
tough-guy poets and
radicals on campus,
State College,
Mahoney cut people to
shreds with
caustic words
the faculty held a special meeting
how to shut Mahoney up?
they could not do it
Mahoney played politics
with administration
was on first name basis with
Deans;
we became undesirables
who smoked pot openly
made fun of the jocks and
future Susie-Homemakers of
America,
one night we went to the
basketball game
and sat up high
in the bleachers
away from everyone else
when the national anthem began
everyone in the gymnasium stood and
turned to us
only ones not standing
and Mahoney began to giggle
as I became self-conscious
and did not realize until
end of the music that
we had sat
in front of
the American flag.


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Wayne F. Burke's poetry has recently been featured in Scarlet Leaf, Ink Sweat & Tears, Meat For Tea, and Loch Raven Review. His three published poetry collections, all with Bareback Press, are WORDS THAT BURN (2013), DICKHEAD (2015), and KNUCKLE SANDWICHES (2016). He lives in the central Vermont area, USA.