Hymn to Dionysus
Eater of raw flesh, Dionysus, deathless
Child of Zeus’ calf, giver of many joys, I call you.
Do not, I beg you bro, with pain and suffering
Kill my buzz.
But if ever we were tight before and totally solid
Then come back, as once you left your father’s house;
You came with slender thrysus in hand and
Wicked hot bitches.
Dancing wildly down the forest’s paths
On rugs of fragrant rose, you came across the black earth
Quickly, then you stood, looking fresh as fuck.
Dude, before me,
Deathless face with smile bright upon it, you asked me
What’s good, who was fucking up my shit,
What would ease my emo mind, and
Why had I hit you up
To come through: “And whom should shots of whisky summon
here, to soothe the sting of your horniness this time?
Who is fucking you up this time, Steve-o? Who is
Turning you down this time?
Now he runs away, but he’ll be back.
Texts he now rejects, soon enough he’ll send.
Now he does not want you, but soon his parts will
burn, though not wanting.”
Come through again, and hold me down.
Take this lame concern for others, and give me
Everything I want. Dude, in all my battles,
Be my bro.
Manhood
Once, while sitting in a circle
We shot each other
With a blowgun.
My brother fished
For some piranhas
While he was on that trip
Where he got that blowgun.
He had heard that
A certain tribe would
Bite the piranha’s head
To prove they were men.
So he sat, drunk,
On the banks of the amazon
Trying to catch his manhood.
James Burdick is living in Taiwan teaching English and studying Chinese and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He graduated from Brooklyn College with a degree in classical literature. His favorite color is red but he looks best in blue.