Nov 21

In The Event of a Collision

by dylan loring

the yellow fast food wrappers
strategically placed all over
your car will serve as airbags,

as will all the fat you’ve built
up at the nine-to-five,
so, really, it’s a good thing

you’ve yet to kick the Diet Coke,
and that Fred from maintenance
keeps the vending machine fully

stocked, should the collision
occur when you’re walking
in-between car and office doors.

The cigarettes, it will turn out,
readied you for the punctured lung.
The weeknight binge drinking,

for the aftermath of all that bad
sushi at the company party.
After all, what doesn’t kill you

usually kills someone else
at least ten years your elder.
In the event of a collision,

take one deep breath,
then ignore everything
you’ve been taught.

 

the_underpass_by_karen_boissonneault-gauthier

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Dylan Loring is from Des Moines, Iowa and is an MFA candidate at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where they study poetry. In addition, Loring teaches composition, serves as a poetry editor for the Blue Earth Review, and hosts the Writer’s Bloc reading series. Loring has forthcoming work in the minnesota review.

Art: “The Underpass” by Karen Boissonneault-Gauthier

Karen Boissonneault-Gauthier is an internationally published writer, poet and visual artist. Australia’s Vine Leaves Literary Journal, New York’s Calliope Magazine, Toronto’s The Scarborough Big Arts Book and designing pieces to raise funds for literacy with San Francisco’s VIDA, are just some of the places she dwells. See more on her website http://www.kcbgphoto.com/ and follow @KBG_Tweets because you can!