Steven Allan Porter was born February 5, 1992 in Coral Springs, FL to a Jewish mother and a German father. His influences include: Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Bob Kaufman, Nick Flynn, Steven Jesse Bernstein, Anne Sexton, Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Simic, and Louis Ferdinand Celine. His work has appeared in Red Fez, Degenerate Literature, Wildflower Muse, Wounwapi Literary Journal, and Syzygy Poetry Journal. He currently resides in Henderson, NV.
"Call and Response of the Living and Dead"
Sitting upright, rigor mortis speaks lightning to
their spines, glued eyes struggling to open.
I ask them, "May I get any of you some water?"
Unable to speak (their mouths also glued),
shake their heads.
A woman points to an urn behind me,
I pick it up and bring it over to her,
I ask her, "Who is this?"
She lowers her head and I notice
a C-Section scar on her stomach.
I realize I'm holding her dead baby's ashes.
I hand her the urn and her body bursts into a
swarm of crimson butterflies and I hear a child laugh.
The remaining stiffs lift their arms
like mannequins contorted to hug a
shadowed loner, awkwardly try to catch
the butterflies and they all disappear
into a shroud of ash-like feces.
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