ON BOB KAUFMAN’S 100th BIRTHDAY
Gray skies on Good Friday
over a nameless super tramp,
thumbing my way up north
until I’m at the cross streets
where I was born
to become a ghost
in between the lines
and in between the pauses
where the music fades beautifully—
a pain worth sticking around for,
wisdom pulled from me in spring
from undiscovered countries
unfrozen untamed unspoken:
excuse my self-crucifixion—
my resurrection’s on layaway.
Kevin Ridgeway is the author of Too Young to Know (Stubborn Mule Press, 2019) and Invasion of the Shadow People (Luchador Press, 2022), in addition to over a dozen chapbooks and split books. His work has appeared in Hiram Poetry Review, New York Quarterly, Paterson Literary Review, Gargoyle, Slipstream, Chiron Review, Nerve Cowboy, Heavy Feather Review, San Pedro River Review and Trailer Park Quarterly, among others. A Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, he lives and writes in Long Beach, CA.
