Poetry from J.J. Campbell

Middle aged white man with a beard standing in a bedroom with posters on the walls
J.J. Campbell

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right before their eyes
 

apple pie, baseball, fireworks,

racism and fucking over

the next guy before he

fucks you

 

amazingly, most people

don't believe in evolution

even though it is playing

out right before their eyes

 

democracy is the last flower

hanging on in a drought

 

and sadly, none of this

rain actually penetrates

the concrete jungles

anymore

 

not sure if people

understand what

happens when

that flower dies

 

i doubt we have the

stomach to understand

how many senseless

deaths we still have

to come

 

so, laugh while you can

 

love as much as you can

 

be present as much as

possible

 

the final days are finally

upon us
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ghosts in a haunted house
 

another lost afternoon

 

some guy strumming

along to an old elvis

costello song

 

you remember playing

that for one of the past

loves of your life

 

some memories

are roses

 

some are ghosts

in a haunted house

 

both of them are traps

 

needless retreats on

the flat circle of time

 

endless thoughts of

what could have been

are only good for

alcohol sales

 

here comes another

holiday

 

just in time
------------------------------------------------------
this horror show
 

cry yourself to sleep

every other night for

a month

 

stress has a way of

eating away at your

soul

 

makes the figure in

the mirror into a monster

the worst of you still

to come

 

as death gets closer to

the door the inevitable

demise creeps into the

brain and stays

 

plunging into a depression

that has no bottom

 

eventually, you forgot

you know how to swim

 

that this horror show is

the same movie you've

been in all your life

 

but this shit never ends

like the movies
-------------------------------------------------------------
the prettiest girl in the world
 

shooting stars

in the quiet

of the night

 

wishes never

seem to come

true

 

my mother

told me to

have patience

and one day

the prettiest

girl in the

world would

be mine

 

what a

fucking

lie
-------------------------------------------
lost in your own world
 

embrace the pain

and keep on going

 

these words aren't

limitless

 

one day you will

be broken and lost

in your own world

 

sprint to the finish

 

only the fools think

forever is even

possible



J.J. Campbell (1976 - ?) is trapped in suburbia, plotting his escape or faking his own death. He's been widely published over the years, most recently at The Beatnik Cowboy, Horror Sleaze Trash, The Rye Whiskey Review, Disturb the Universe Magazine and The Asylum Floor. He has a book coming out later this summer with Casey Renee Kiser. You can find him most days on his mildly entertaining blog, evil delights.