Spring 2013, Volume 14

Poetry by William L. Alton

Men and Booze

She has secrets and shares them sometimes with the men she brings home
in the night before going through their wallets and memorizing
their names and social security numbers. She works in the bar
bringing wine and bourbon to drunks listening to Johnny Cash on the radio, talking politics and religion without the wild anger men often bring to such conversations.
She stops sometimes and goes out back for a cigarette, a chance to stop and think.
She doesn’t care much for too much free time. Being alone makes her nervous. Waiting
for something to happen scares her. She’d rather fill her hours with meaningless words scattered around her life like laundry waiting to be washed.

My First Apartment

I walk into the room.
The room is empty.
It is empty of everything but the floor,
four walls and a ceiling. There used
to be a window in one wall but someone
built over it with drywall and paint.
Now it holds a ledge for books
maybe. I think I can put my computer there.
My land lady stands in the door
doing her litany:
No Drugs.
No Loud Music.
No Girls.
Rent on the Fifth.
This is going to be fun.

 

 

 

 

BIO: William L. Alton was born November 5, 1969 and started writing in the
Eighties while incarcerated in a psychiatric prison. Since then his work has
appeared in Main Channel Voices, World Audience and Breadcrumb Scabs among
others. In 2010, he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He has published one
book titled Heroes of Silence. He earned both his BA and MFA in Creative
Writing from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon where he continues
to live. You can find him at williamlalton.com.