TEENAGE DESERT PLAYLISTS

I’ve left my heart + lungs    on low rumble cried to

bury the bones of stories      in the walls of the first floor

Fingers always              find open hearts—           

prospects promises heartbreaks:                     on-the-clock                    

            traversing the scaffolding         of         fugitive         exhortations

            in exchanges of headlines about 

the gone wilderness             the city abides         wires raising

            the hackles of new pathologies             I am        the

wishbone         rejection blown over like an insecure flag

            the cold still nips                             blue pill boxes

lining pockets             the gray midnight mechanical failures

of     language    find     stairways   bunching  up along    the   spine   a

            fright heaps into pieces of a lingering insomniac

            w/ a sentient beard

It’s a last stop                 before the choke point

of the throat     moving toward         the deconstruction

of wildness      favor     the     exhausted    radio.  chatter  of   empty

freeways—         all of our wounds are swallowed 

           all of our endless desert                     + teenage playlists

Adam Stutz is the author of Transcript (Cooper Dillon Books, 2017) and The Scales (White Stag Publishing, 2018). His work has appeared in various print and online publications including The Equalizer: Second Series, The Cultural Society, A Sharp Piece of Awesome, Prelude, Be About It, Deluge, Dum Dum Zine, The Pinch, Where is the River, Dream Pop, Cover, Ghost Proposal and can also be found at https://stutzwrites.com. He currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.