PUNK POETRY: To The Guy Wearing a Dying Fetus Shirt... by Timothy Batson

To The Guy Wearing The Dying Fetus Shirt At The Deftones Concert in Seattle, WA on 04/16/22

I stared at the screen print on your back and saw a mirror

I have been depressed since the beginning and finally felt the validation of years spent living in abstraction, 

of explaining to others who have heard about ghosts, who know them as intimately as an ad in a magazine they read 20 years ago in a doctors office while waiting for test results for a condition that didn’t exist; meaning not at all

I am that green, orange silhouette of half-formed life on heavy weight cotton, tour dates ordered cleanly across a 10” x 6” square; 

letters fading with each wearing,

subsequent wash, 

grime of the pit soaked in, 

disintegrating, 

cheap fibers softening through force

then

if I am lucky,

some kid will find the shirt at a swap meet, haggle with the vendor over the exorbitant price, ask to throw in for free of a pair of pleated, acid-washed jeans, a floppy / crushed hat, synthetic boots, cigarette trading cards, and call it a deal 

their dream of being cool, within reach

--Timothy Batson