I Don’t Write Poetry Anymore

I just quit, I decided.
Now I’m free
to go for my stupid little walks,
in my stupid little shorts, with my stupid little cigarettes
to keep my fingers idle
so that I don’t write poetry
or wrinkle them inside a girl who doesn’t love me back.

I go for my stupid little smoking walks,
sometimes i carry a bag
but it’s probably empty
unless i packed a snack,
baby carrots and hummus,
a handful of pretzels
stuff like that.

I eat my stupid little snacks
in the dirt, in the shade
beneath a great big oak tree
that’s gonna be at least a hundred years old
and there are too many birds to count.
I’m twenty-three, I should mention
with little to consider
but how I got here
and what the doves are mourning.

C.J. Strauss (he/they) is a poet. Their work has been published by Lunch Ticket Magazine, Utterance Journal, The Poetry Society of New York, Echoes Literary Magazine, and others. They founded and serve as the Editor-in-Chief for Jacked Mag: a radical literary & art magazine by transmasculine, two-spirit, and third-gender individuals. Their likeness has appeared in Vogue Italia, Hoot Magazine, and elsewhere.