Jason Sturner

Kicking Sand in the Face of Indolence

It sits, like a wet cotton ball.
Covered with dust, hair,
and false starts.

Hours have dropped from the clock,
the insolent wind has carried them away.
But time still goes, and goes, and goes.

The cotton ball? It lies, it lies,
it stays put. Festered. Festering.
Willful, but left without device.

What’s been muddied in the mind of it?
How many tires have squealed by
and yet it does not flinch?

It is restless, waiting for a wave to crash,
to wash away the washed-up rhetoric
which convinced it it had nothing left to say.

To leave its dead crab countenance
on the shore of this black-ink sea—
And my brand new feet come by

and kick on it the white sands.
To cover it. To bury it.
To see it dead, and something new arise.


(First published in Language and Culture.net)




Can You Dig It, Girl?

I washed you out
with a few cold beers,
your pretty face
among old parts in the garage.
You had me under your sheets
before I realized my mistake—
Hooks, lures;
gasping hearts flopping
all over the place.

They say behind every man
is a good woman.
My-my,
how things have changed.


(First published in American Open Mike: The New American Voice, Volume 2)




In Spite of Candlelight

She senses
Something past me
A bit like hope
Cast off my shoulder
To the wall

X, I want to
O, she can

I see
Something airborne
A bit like revelation
The tarnished halo
Of her visit

X, tonight!
But O, she cannot

She feels
Something for herself
A bit like regret
Slipping off the heavy end of a sigh
When she goes


(First published in American Open Mike: The New American Voice, Volume 2)


Jason Sturner grew up along the Fox River in northern Illinois. Of his many jobs, the most interesting were bird bander, graphic designer, and botanist. His stories and poems have appeared in Mad Swirl, Liquid Imagination, Chantarelle's Notebook, Decompression, Every Day Poets, and Sein und Werden, among others. He currently lives near the Great Smoky Mountains. Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/JasonSturnerAuthor
Website: http://www.jasonsturner.blogspot.com/

Current Issue:
August 2013

AJ Davis
James H. Duncan
Anthony Liccione
Christina Rau
Ron Riekki
Jason Sturner
Patricia Wellingham-Jones

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