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From Noria
oh there are golden puppies
buzzing in my ear like a coke rush
looping over the colorized Helldiver
the tyranny of 18,000 pennies
a waxed clarinet flourish
in my subsidized longjohns
[sitting in my room]
lacking even a desert's beauty
I watch the trains click by
the room is very small
your face painted on every car
*
I enjoyed picturing people
a few time zones ahead of me
[people at night while I in sun]
because it meant that the future
still existed, each word a step
in at least one direction, 40 WINKS,
80 MONTHS, AND A SINGLE
LONELY DREAM OF US
what were you thinking of
when you wrote this? I
remember watching an episode
of Lockup on my prison TV
and in the episode a prisoner
was in his cell talking about
what he likes to watch on TV
and he laughed and pointed at the TV
where an episode of Lockup was playing
this really happened, I pointed at my TV
and said to my cellmate, how weird is this ?
we're in prison watching prisoners on TV
watching prisoners on TV !
[mud swallow shit on the window]
*
Okay, so it just keeps happening to you?
[PATTERN RECOGNITION]
"Top post: My father died less than a week ago.
I am devastated and do not . . ."
One of two things in this world
is true: I will die first or
I did not leave the attic atop the flower
you will
[Long white gloves]
*
The foothills are run amok
With wild peppermint, and the horses
Have never been so well-spoken,
So fresh-mouthed as they are now
I'm gonna make a lot of money
when I get out, I'm gonna eat
a hamburger and have sex
in a hotel when I get out
And then I stole your Cartier
Planted the diamonds
In the crook of my barren
Thigh: only place open this late...
I'm gonna start everything over
when I get out, I'm gonna live
I am studying the red flesh behind my eyes
Your body can feel enormous
In a place so small
It learns [the body]
to achieve in dreams
what no longer holds a place in days
[When I ride around in cars
I sometimes pretend that my hands
are handcuffed] I have combed the desert
for your words. Literally with a comb
The desert never looked so handsome
Note: All italicized portions of the text are sourced from the author’s own prison notebooks.
Alex Tretbar is a Midwestern writer and educator. He is the author of the chapbooks toofarwandered (Tilted House, 2026), According to the Plat Thereof (Ethel, 2025), and Kansas City Gothic (Broken Sleep, 2025). His novella-poem Dogsmind is forthcoming from Dead Mall Press in the fall of 2026. Recent poems, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in Annulet, Cleveland Review of Books, Fence, Grotto, Hearsay, P-QUEUE, and others. Alongside students, alumni, and faculty from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, he teaches creative writing at Chillicothe Correctional Center, a women’s prison in Missouri.