Only the Good

by James Lilley

They left me on the curb

outside

cold hard concrete

warm stickiness

soaking through

my best shirt

she had picked out special

grotesque neon sign

washing me in green

pulsing

O’Neils

Downtown’s only Irish bar

while I gasped for breath.

They’d hit me with two

somewhere in my chest

bad deeds always catch up

my wife sobbing nearby

a dirty cop

retirement party

all those memories

reaching out was hopeless

trying to talk filled my mouth with

copper-tasting bubbles

I didn’t pray

Who needed a God?

Not me.

Only the good die young.

James Lilley, 34, is a father of three from Swansea, Wales. He is a retired professional boxer and active MMA and bareknuckle fighter. He works a day job as a network engineer and is currently enrolled in a part-time diploma for Creative Writing. 2020 was the first year James submitted any poetry, having written privately for years. He’s had work published in Spillwords, Punk Noir Magazine, Black Bough Poetry, Close to the Bone, Splintered Disorder Press, the Daily Drunk Magazine, Fevers of the Mind Poetry, The Five-Two, and Versification. He was selected as Versification’s Punk of the Year 2020 and has Poetry Book due for publication Jan 2022 with Close to the Bone.