GODZILLA POEM

Wandering a blasted Tokyo.
Toppled skyscrapers,
discount breakfast sandwich,
a gas station hangover.
God won’t come down
from his throne. Too much
sadness and poison.
All that remains
is the tiny darting
of irradiated lizards
and me, the idler who has
inherited his money,
little king of reptiles.

TANKA

wounded baby bird
group chat says ‘kill it w/ rock’
the neighbor gardens
horrible shoveling sounds
scooping out what’s gone rotten

COLD LONELY MOUNTAIN POEM II

Chinese ‘Mega Cities.’ Intrauterine cannibalism.
A lost generation of ‘prime-aged men’ vanishing
‘utterly’ from the economy. I thought
there would be a logic to it, prospecting
call centers, eating my twin in the womb,
getting a job at Dunkin Donuts.
So I slip further north, between glaciers
and bargain outlet stores. 400-yr old
abyssal sharks, auroras produced
by government beam technology,
terminal high altitude aerial defense.
The moon here is fake.
The seagulls do not fly south for winter.
The gull is a bird with ice for blood
and he eats his young
and in this cold village
I become dark and strange,
puking a horrible egg.

Nathaniel Duggan is a former mattress salesman. His work has appeared previously in Muumuu House, 3:AM Magazine, and New World Writing, among others. He has a book of poetry, Death Egg, out by Back Patio Press.