“Dickens’s Dream,” oil on canvas (unfinished), by Robert William Buss, 1875.

you have all you need

all my dreams
cost more than
whatever money
i ever had in my
life

being poor doesn’t
allow you to ever
think any of those
dreams will ever
come true

so, you adjust
and think smaller

and eventually you
keep adjusting until
the thought goes
away

convince yourself
that you have all
you need and there
is somebody out
there worse off

keep watching
the evening news
for validation

the west coast
is on fire

no need to see
it now

*
a dozen roses

saw a guy walking
in the rain today
with a dozen roses

i wasn’t sure if
those were you’re
the love of my life
roses

or the bitch said
she couldn’t get
pregnant roses

those seem to be
popular these days

i give the guy
credit though

it’s raining like there
is no tomorrow but
he seems determined

hopefully the roses
were worth nearly
getting hit by some
asshole wondering

what the fuck is
he carrying?

carriage.2

J.J. Campbell is currently trapped in suburbia. His poetry has appeared most recently at Record Magazine, Horror Sleaze Trash, In Between Hangovers, October Hill Magazine and Mad Swirl. You can find him most days on his mildly entertaining blog, evildelights.blogspot.com.