Note: This poem is from The Clearing Barrel by Anthony Roberts, published by Blue Jade Press.
Poems composed in bathtubs
hold more meaning
writing during baptism
at least your body is clean
if not your mind or soul
and what of the mind and soul
you eventually lose one
and the other becomes
a bargaining chip
in a game of blackjack
with a God
who looks like Penn Gillette
Anthony Roberts is a veteran of Baltimore and Afghanistan. He currently lives in New Jersey in a home with beautiful views and interlocking fields of fire.
Listen to our Savage Wonder episode with him here.
He is the author of the Pushcart Prize-nominated Pigtown and The Clearing Barrel.
You can follow him here.
Learn more about the Veterans Repertory Theater here.