Happy Thoughts Vol 1:
How to Get Rich While Being Your Best Self

1
there is no poetry in America
      only work
war
        death
and the guys who got Capone

2
we mourn our lives unlived
    our look in the mirror in the wake of age
we mourn ourselves as we see others succeed
    each day, each greeting, each departure,
and most of all we mourn our dreams
    fragile and unwrapped

3
get a grip

        on what this is

know yourself

        a sacrificial flame

on the altar of art

        rising burning reaching

give everything

        or get the fuck out

4
life is                    not good
we must              confront it
and impart          our knowledge
                              to others             
with love
to protect            our soul

Bill Kurz is a local writer living in Maryland. He writes at the crucible of North American and South American fiction. You can find more of his writing in Sound and Fury, Remington Review, and PLOS One.

Featured image: Shan Sheehan, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons