Slayer, Detroit 1992

This poem appeared at ENTROPY in December 2015. ENTROPY is no longer with us, so moving all my writing from there to here. Hope you enjoy!

Slayer, Detroit, 1992

Driving with Mickey

from Jackson to the

old Fox Theater down-

town inside two balconies

towering over the main floor

levels teeming w/bodies

like Dante's Inferno

we found our place

at the top far above the

churning mosh pit circles

flailing before the stage

arms swinging boots

kicking stage diving

next to the band playing

sweating growling

guitars like percussion

chainsaw buzzing next

to me flailed one of the

few girls there with a boy

friend tho not a boyfriend

usually I never know tho

this girl seemed to like

both me & Slayer two things

hard to believe she looked

like the waitress back in east

LA that time at Pizza Hut

with other young musicians

in a booth she told me

she liked my Slayer t-shirt

goathead demon and

upsidedown pentagram

from Hell Awaits I couldnt

believe a girl w/brown skin

& black hair & actual smile

would ever choose me the

other guys wondering why

didnt I get her number but

I didnt know how fearing

shame I was a virgin & here

she was again in Detroit

years later & I still didnt

know how to talk to her

in the noise & dark tho

I sensed she felt safe next

to me or thats what I could

allow myself to feel &

Mickey was the boyfriend

of my drummers younger

sister who had liked

me before I even left for

LA & back to Michigan

when I was young she younger

murmurs down in the pit

shouts b/c Anthrax was there

later at her brothers marriage

we kissed & she jacked me

like a pro as if I had any

idea how a pro would do it

except that she seemed to have

had lots of practice which

would have been fine until

she told me Mickey had

raped her yet her brother was

still friends with him tho

her brother I knew for years

before the wedding revealed

his enjoyment of nigger

jokes while our guitar player

said he drove his Bronco

over suburban lawns at two

men he saw holding hands

so I would quit but not before

sneaking into my drummers

house one time jacking off

with his wifes blue lace

panties when Slayer

came on for the encore

everyone screamed Angel

of Death our bodies banging

against each other