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WALTER LUCKEN IV






LOCAL LEFTISTS HATE HIM


he has never pointed a megaphone at the police and said the future is ours

he has no stories about getting arrested on purpose or shoplifting he has three dozen stories about buying 349 dollars worth of fresh Polos

“Who’s in charge of the girls, I’m in charge of the girls” -Vladimir Lenin, 1918.





ADVANCED COMMUNISM


at the time I was living in a big blue brick house between ultimate disco and a shooting that brought an entire community of stewbums to its knees, when I came home I shuddered and knocked and addressed the hulking frames in the kitchen who bellowed and slapped each other with raw steaks when somebody said harambe, I cried and I said I’m sorry but people wanna kill me and all

they saw was a tommyknocker and after

a moment of piercing silence howled

next thing you know you got motherfuckers with fake names and fake profile pics yelling they’re gonna kill you meanwhile I got my real name on my shit and the whole city know where I work at





THE REASON FOR THE SUNKEN VILLAGE


bouncing thru the mountains I wondered about cocaine business the new strain of apartheid why every warm creature dies from a certain perspective some dogs bark some dogs live on the couch and wear a coat

some community benefits ordinances grow thru the cracks


WALTER LUCKEN IV co-facilitates the Writer’s Block writing workshop at the Macomb Men’s Correctional Facility, and recently co-edited Absent but Present: Voices from the Writer’s Block, a collection of poetry from writers incarcerated at Macomb CF. His writing has appeared in Runner, ROAR, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Freedom Arts Journal. He lives in Detroit.

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