Some people Drink Themselves to Death
Ron Riekki


but you
insist

you've drank yourself
to life,

that the more
alcoholic

you are,
the more

that God
will get

to save you,
with your Mount Rainier

cheeks,
arms made

of whorehouses
and buffalo wings.

I wonder
sometimes

if enlightenment
is simply

gazing peacefully
at anything.

About the author:
Ron Riekki's books include U.P. (Great Michigan Read series nominated) and The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works (selected by the Library of Michigan as a 2014 Michigan Notable Book and a Foreword Book of the Year Award finalist in the Anthologies category).