Two Poems

by Tim Frank

The Ride

I stepped off the train at dawn,

There was violence in the air.

A shockwave rocked the streets,

Screams jostled through the gloom

As neon bars closed down.

Fiends and lunatics

Scrambled through the gutters

As children wept like slaves,

And raged among the traffic.

I knocked back one more drink.

I was sliding into hell,

Rolling in the deep.

But it was just a lucid dream,

And just another ride

In the busy morning haze

Tragedy is Waiting

There’s a man

Treading inner city tracks

And darkened underpasses,

Creeping towards his fate.

He knows more than most

There’s a morgue

With every mood swing,

A corpse

With every sigh.

The wounds on his wrists

Are filling central parks.

Tragedy is waiting,

Like an early morning storm

Fighting through the streets.

BIO: Tim Frank’s work has been published in Bending Genres, X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine, Maudlin House, Hobart, The Forge Literary Magazine, New World Writing and elsewhere. He has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and 3x Best of the Net. His debut chapbook is, An Advert Can Be Beautiful in the Right Shade of Death (C22 Press ’24) His sophomore effort is, Delusions to Live By (Alien Buddha Press ’25) Twitter: @TimFrankquill Author website https://linktr.ee/TimFrank