70th birthday poem
five minutes left
before my 69th
rolls over to seven-oh
i wait for words of wisdom
to appear out of thin air
a small revelation
or an epiphany
god knows i could use one
right now with all the nazis
in the streets
i didn’t hang around this long
to have to deal with this crap
but nothing comes
Zilch
Nada
this poem is more barren
than that Christmas tree
in the Charlie Brown cartoon
a cold bed awaits
i’m even too sleepy
to masturbate
ain’t this some
shit
Richard Vargas earned his B.A. at Cal State University, Long Beach, where he studied under Gerald Locklin. He edited/published five issues of The Tequila Review, 1978-1980, and twelve issues of The Mas Tequila Review from 2010-2015. Vargas received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico, 2010, where he workshopped his poems with Joy Harjo. A sixth book, The Screw City Poems, was released in July 2025, Roadside Press. He currently resides in the hometown of Cheap Trick and legendary porn star Ginger Lynn. https://www.richardvargaspoet.com/
