Drive safe.

DRIVE SAFE BY NATHANAEL WILLIAM STOLTE & JJ 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 45

JJ has been sending me old-school analogue collages to write poems for. JJ is Mixed Messages Zine on Tumblr, combat-boot wearing, card-carrying, Queen Bee. So she sent me this collage, Go Play in Traffic.

In my travels across America I have seen the never-ending strip mall in all its wonder and horror. I have also wandered the food deserts, and encountered the systematic destruction of the family structure of some American peoples. Not to mention the standardization of education to a sort of factory. All these truths swirling in an alchemical reaction of thought and ponder birthed this 24-word poem (24 words including the title).

An aged-out punk from the Rust Belt I went to college for the first time when I was staring down the barrel of 30. I discovered I liked poetry. I was taught poetry by teachers who didn’t give a fuck. So I was almost 30 and I went to a community college in Buffalo where a professor reads…