By Christian Garduno

I’ve been gone so long
someone else lives there, it’s someone else’s home
even though I do think about that tiny house sometimes
it might have been the only place I could have had it all
but I listened to too many songs about Boxcar Sam
now, half a lifetime later, I’ve officially become Boxcar Sam
but missing you is the closest a man can come to living in damnation

Two million years from now, when they dig me up by accident
they’ll find your name carved into my heart and the dagger still in my hand
to the scientist, it won’t make any sense, but the poet will understand
Ah, yes, the poet will think to himself:
Here lies on the slab a true romantic
by definition a sucker and a fool for love
A soul given to love is the highest exaltation I can think of

About the Author

Christian Garduno is the recipient of the 2019 national Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry. Garduno is a Finalist in the 2020-2021 Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Writing Contest. He lives and writes along the South Texas coast with his wonderful wife Nahemie and young son Dylan.