Macks Cook

dirge in mario kart skies

 u would drive off the track
twisting the chewed-on foam
wheel controller
u would hurtle through
wario’s goldmine
get some pixel
of ur bike stuck
in a moving cart
u would ragequit

on the wii u can
drive backwards
for a long time
with nothing
turning u around

on rnbw rd
u would
knock me off
int2 the stars
over & over
u wanted me
2 stop missing
glittering ramps up
and forward
u hated me soft
u hated my fag hands
fumbling the b button
for a trick in the air
my toad in 3rd place
u, you in first

in juvie u grabbed a
girl by her hair
for calling u gay

ur old gf came 2 ur funeral
u taught her to look for burn marks
on motel room ceilings

drunk in galvy yrs later,
she swore the methheads
left ur face up there
above the bed

evry sky is u
every one knows it
every sky
finds u in it
still

i still play toad
nobody i know
really knows u
but when we play
mario kart switch
i only pick wii maps
and i don’t try to win

lakitu taunts me
when i try 2 do
really anything
like u used 2

in mario kart
its hard even
2 look at the sky

on the wii u cld
drve bkwrds
4 a long time

it was ez
2 find u
there
then

Macks Cook (they/them) is a trans poet from Texas. They hold an MFA from Syracuse University, where they acted as co-editor-in-chief of Salt Hill. Their work is published or forthcoming in Poetry Online, Columbia Journal, Off Season Mag, and underblong. You can find out more on their website mackscook.com

dirge in mario kart skies

by Macks Cook | listen to the poem

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