Addiction

I stole cell phones/ That, I think, stood/ For communication with/ Family members.

I stole cell phones

That, I think, stood

For communication with

Family members. I stole

Their cell phones first, then I

Stole my principal-

Who-turned-to-paddle-

Me’s—cloning nightmares with flash-

Light shadow puppets in nap time—

Cell phone; my mother wouldn’t allow

Her. I never stole my mother

With respect to her

Needs, or my father’s, despite

Him using two: one for drugs and one too

For selling drugs; I like

To think the drugs were

Communicating in order

To obtain me, who was phony up to the ear

With no antenna, no matter

How many I stole and gave back.

 

About the author

Prince Bush is a poet attending Western Kentucky University for an MFA in Poetry. He has been nominated for Best of the Net and The Pushcart Prize. While attending Fisk University, he was a 2019 Bucknell Seminar for Undergraduate Poets Fellow.