Tyler Gobble

Revenge

for Layne Ransom

I am thinking of a terrible idea
whose time has finally come.

A soundtrack if you will—songs of me
dipping my cold in the hot of what is.

Years of my catfish soul nibbling
at the pulp, oh how mighty my fin

steady in my good nature, proof of what
could be escaping me. I put a sliver

of glass in my mouth. One day I
tasted a hand of spinach and motor oil,

black streaks through the mud, an ember
lit from the nail and burst went my belly,

the rest of my speeding away—history
in the murk. I never did take my chances

with the lasers, the dancing in the storm.
I’ve said it before and now again—

I’m no tough guy, just some dude in a hat.
Yet my tail splashing towards the sky

has awakened, what? God sitting there
neither surprised or unnaked, his business

being done for the first time in front
of a live audience. Hello, good morning,

it is October. Twenty-four years and his
great illusion unveiled at the surface:

God shed his mucous in 1988
and my muscles had finally come.

Tyler Gobble is a member of the Magic Helicopter Press team, lead editor of Stoked Journal, and a contributor with Vouched Books. He is the author of three chapbooks, most recently Goodness is a Fine Thing to Chase, part of The Fullness of Everything featuring Christopher Newgent and Brian Oliu (Tiny Hardcore Press, 2012). Find more atwww.tylergobble.com.