HEROINE
she was my heroine
my heroin, she
the thing in my veins
the veins in my thing
the thing that drives
me crazy and drives
my car into walls
and things
that sick feeling
that feeling sick
everything, sick
sick of everything
and wanting every
thing to stop
to hock everything
to stop the sickness
to stop throwing
up, to stop throwing
stones and words
to stop words from
throwing me, to
stop and stop and
just
stop
her eyes, emeralds
in milk white
I eye her, milk
white, like
emeralds
starving for that
puncture, that skin
prick, my prick
starving to
puncture skin
needing, salivating
salivating for need
the need to need
and starving to need
and starving
because of need
shaking hands with
shaking hands and
trading trades for
stacks for packs
for one more
night and one
more night
thereafter
the taste of
the feel of
the sense of
the want of
the need of
the dream of
her and it
and it is
inherent
and it inherits
me, and I
her and it
she was my heroine
she was my heroin
my heroin, she
she was my every
thing
everything, she
ART
her purse, her palette
hues of warm,
and vicious
sticks of auburn
and crimson, a shade
for every moment
at work
her eyes a meadow
and cheeks like
summer beaches
after work
smoke clouds on
tawny flats
other times
violets and lilies and
roses, nude and tan
and bare, gray on
black on blue
and like all
art, she submits her
creations everyday
and like all
art, there are rejections
those who ignore
and those who
would have her on their
walls
and those who
scorn
and those who
critique whether she wants
it or not
in the museums we
build and tear down
every day, a woman
is a painting
painting the painter
keeping within lines
drawn for her
before every patron
and critic
passing through
from one end of
the gallery to the
next
barely
noticing her
barely
Mike McHone’s work has appeared in numerous publications including Ellery Queen, Mystery Weekly, Playboy, the Detroit News, the AV Club, Mystery Tribune, Nine Cloud Literary Journal, Guilty Crime Magazine, and previously in Punk Noir. His short story “A Drive-by on Chalmers Road?” placed on the Ellery Queen Readers Poll as one of the best short stories to appear in the magazine for 2020. Although he lives in Detroit, anyone can stop by for a visit at www.mikemchone.com
Punk Noir Magazine 
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