john compton - Three Poems

side effects to talking 

my voice loses its balance.

words get tired,

they slur.

they become a mess of sound.

unpronounced.

my vocal cords seize.

my brain no longer

understands the english language.

my tongue becomes languid,

falls into a coma.

my voice box closes its doors.

my esophagus has a twelve verbatim pile up.

i swallow the dead

and the injured have amnesia.

side effects to spasms

or ticks, or tremors.

my head jolts to the left

three times

in rapid motion.

the stars move along

the horizon

in another country

because light pollution

makes our sky

too bright.

i take my body

filled with earthquakes

and sit in the bed

trying to write this poem

but my right wrist argues with me.

it jams down on the keyboard

and backspace

becomes a religion

and i pray to autocorrect

to forgive me for my mishaps.

side effects to listening

my ears offer a universe.

your voice becomes two parallels

and i take the least confrontational

which ships me into a void.

i become a small planet

lost in a black hole.

a darkness pulls at my existence

until nothing but my core exists.

the radiowaves of white noise

hum me into a lullaby.

when you finish your statement

fifty years have passed

and i notice light particles

spin around your body

—debris

of poetry

that want to form

their own star.

---

john compton (b. 1987), author of 17 books/chapbooks, is a gay poet/writer who lives in Kentucky with his husband josh and their dogs and cats, and mice. his latest full length book is my husband holds my hand because i may drift away & be lost forever in the vortex of a crowded store published with Flowersong Press (dec 2024); his forthcoming full length book house as a cemetery will be published with Rebel Satori Press (march 2026). you can find his books, some poems and other things here: https://linktr.ee/poetjohncompton