ODE TO WHAT YOU CAN’T TAKE WITH YOU
somebody will walk above your grave
And your dusty bones will remember
the weight of each copper coin undropped
into the void of an uptown traffic meter
and wads of paper bills will fill your deteriorating
pockets as your jaw, just bones, will unhinge
and regurgitate month after month of overdraft fees
and bank statements, late rent and funeral fees
and the deposit on your lease, which
you will have broken by dying without proper notice,
two weeks at least, and it would be reckless
to dig you from the ground, so, instead,
they will pile up all this unspent and unpaid money
and drop its debt like a sack of bones
on the front doorstep of your children.
Quinn Carver Johnson was born and raised on the Kansas-Oklahoma border and currently attends Hendrix College, pursuing degrees in Creative Writing and Performance Studies. Johnson was an editorial intern at Sundress Publications and currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the Aonian. Johnson’s work has appeared in Rappahannock Review, Right Hand Pointing, and Flint Hills Review
Todd Fuller has two books published, 60 Feet Six Inches and Other Distances from Home: the (Baseball) Life of Mose YellowHorse (Holy Cow! Press, 2002) and To the Disappearance (Mongrel Empire Press, 2015). He serves as co-director of OU’s Mark Allen Everett Poetry Series and as an adjunct faculty mentor for the Red Earth MFA Program at Oklahoma City University. Recent work has appeared in the Journal of Working Class Studies, Flint Hills Review, and Red Earth Review.