Put It To Rest: Poetry Month Challenge

Autissimo

a poem

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

The pizza place upstreet made another pie
just for me. Same ingredients, same taste

the ninja turtles assured decades ago
I could trust, and I do. Jet’s never judged

for geeking out, losing sleep scrolling one Wiki
after the next, did you know facts

about digital monsters, punk bands and shark week
unleashed like a full-power ki blast

on anyone who will listen. And some who won’t.
They’re content to let me paint for days;

let my social battery dry faster than old iPhones
I can’t upgrade yet; hacked as quickly

by stray thoughts and naptime schedules
I dare not break. I have enemies: flannel textures,

graphite scrapes on paper; haughty laughter
from tweens amused I’d dare sing a song,

ask a date. The shrieking shame
of an embarrassed parent at home

with no name for this disconnect
this deep in the 90s,

asking why I can’t talk normal, act normal,
be normal to any god that’s listening.

If I knew, I would. I’d break this Plexiglas
caging me from normalcy,

allow the same outfit every weekday
to finally rest, find somewhere I belong.

Josh Crummer is the author of “We Are the Raiders,” a chapbook examining the small Midwest city of Zilwaukee, Michigan, as a child during the Attitude Era of the late 90s/early 00s; available for purchase on Amazon. Find him on Medium or Instagram. Josh Crummer ©2023.

Put It To Rest: April Poetry Month Challenge