Austin Rodenbiker

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Austin Rodenbiker

Madness Is Reincarnated as Casey Donovan on Fire Island

 
Every night he is walking out of the water and onto the beach
like a bird flying into the jaws of a monster. The black sky
boxes him in, the chain around his neck hangs him, his cock ring
reflects a light I haven’t identified. He is looking for me
on the wrong side of the island. He stumbles through the dunes
like a cloud of smoke. Ghosts of beautiful men ask him for a cigarette
but madness only has eyes for me. Dark forms boil away as he passes,
he grabs at pine branches to stay upright. Madness what are you
doing here. Jesus. Madness you’re drunk, go home. Every night
it’s the same. He’s saying he wants me back he’ll be better to me
this time this time it’s different he was wrong before and knows it
now. I’ve changed, says madness. People can change, Austin.
 

Austin Rodenbiker reads “Madness Is Reincarnated as Casey Donovan on Fire Island”

 

Austin Rodenbiker’s work has appeared in Poetry, Tin House, Pleiades, The Columbia Review, and Foglifter, among other publications. He holds an MFA from the New Writers Project. He’s received support for his poetry from ONE Archives, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Fire Island Artist Residency.