local_library Youth In a Time of Smoking Tigers

by Tim West

Published in Issue No. 210 ~ November, 2014

When tigers used to smoke,

we prowled the streets

with tiger-eyed abandon.

 

In youth, any stripe is possible.

 

With Red Stripe and menthols,

out to see the bands, man,

or passing a bottle between our paws

as some slow, sad country song

growled from the speakers.

 

I’d like to have a beer again,

when tigers smoke.

 

Where have you gone?

 

I keep my distance from the claws;

but I think I see a pack in its paws,

and matches there again.

 

The stripes have changed,

but he still lights up

when you’re around.

 

 

account_box More About

Tim West’s poem “If Our Awakenings Had Correlated” appeared in the July 2012 issue of Pif Magazine. He has also published poetry in Red River Review and Blue Collar Review. Tim has an English degree from Ohio State and lives in Columbus with his family.