Member-only story
Cause Unknown
Mar 2, 2023
My town is creative — music, art,
literature. Most come for college,
stay on — futoning house to house —
fiscal sustenance a carousel
with only part-time horses — barista,
server, barback, cashier, revolving
year by year — rent, food, car insurance,
gas — chances at club gigs, group shows,
open mics, art openings, and signings.
It’s a granitic life — millennia
of heat and pressure — the “break”
just around the corner of Lumpkin
and Clayton — always taking a toll.
After thirty years I still cry,
every time I read an obituary
stating “cause unknown”.
Gary D. Grossman
Verse Virtual, March 2023
