Austin Kelly - Candid and Authentic Poems - Dreamers Creative Writing

Austin Kelly – A Selection of Candid and Authentic Poems

May 21, 2018

Coke and Whiskey

You kept me company like the other cheerleaders

couldn’t, from park to hotel, ride to store, you kept

me warm while I drank at every region

in Epcot, played the fifth wheel to two honeymoon

phased couples, while I tried to dance with someone

at the block party, my body moving like a drunk

metronome to the time of a generic throbbing bass

played by a DJ in the front, the friends I came with succeeded

in what I couldn’t so you followed me as I levitated

to the mini-bars that lined the dance floor

and I proceeded to drink them until the party

ended, and we had to leave, and I had to pack,

and get on the plane, and I left you hanging

in the hotel room that morning.

Grand Delusions of Winter

After Erin Jones

Used to stand outside and watch my breath

when it was snowing, still, quiet, feeling

like I was in a movie. The theatrics

giving me a sense of purpose.

If I would just play my role of the hopeful

student, content, and follow

direction cues, everything would be fine,

fine like lines of drunken cutting,

cracks on broken knuckles. Portray

the character like he’s supposed to be.

It didn’t snow last year, the director left the set

pissed, I’m pissed, this gin reminds

me of a best friend I fucked

over, his British accents as real

as the sex I had with his girl. I wish it would snow,

the director could return to the set,

bringing a better mood, could say

my lines, the scene captured, that’s a wrap,

I could go home, walk through

the snow, feel the white meaningless

specks on my cheeks burning life

and contentment for a brief second, gone.

I could watch the snow from my back porch

like when I was young,

before going to bed.

It hasn’t snowed here in a while,

it just rains, makes mud, dirtying

my shoes. I smoke

outside now, watching the exhale, counting

the minutes until I work between inhales.

–

About the Author

Austin Kelly is a writer with a rather causal and boring life, but with different insights on it. He writes focusing on his simple life, using his writing as a map to his thoughts, a way to journal his emotions, maybe helping someone one day with his words. In the end, he’s just writing his head onto a page and hoping he has time to walk his dogs today.

Read more poetry on Dreamers Creative Writing, like these poems by Duane Herrmann.

Consider also:

Three Poems by Craig Barker
Two Poems by James Brandon
The poem was still pulsing…