Three Poems By Chase Spruiell

Chase Spruiell was born in Denton, Texas. He spent the majority of his life playing basketball throughout high school and college. He has a bachelor's degree in Digital Cinema and currently resides in Austin, Texas where he writes and plays music with his band, Free Kittens & Bread.

life tolerance

the clerk handed me 24 ounces
of life tolerance
in a brown paper bag.

he told me to have a good day
at 11:37 at night.

on my way out,
I held the door open
for another lost soul
and took his thanks
to heart. chances are,
he was on his way in
for what I was on my way
out with.

getting into my car,
I noticed a man sleeping
just to the left of the store.
slapped down on the pavement.
in rags. barely breathing.
tolerating life to the fullest.

and beyond all recognition
of placement and stature,
I couldn’t see the difference
between him and me.

 Chase Spruiell

this body of mine

it flags and
drags

it’s numb and it’s
slow

it burns and it
yearns

it stumbles and
it trembles

it can’t
keep up

and how
it disgruntles the
separations I would like
to keep intact

the mind
versus
the body

it allows me to be
a person
but
not the person
I would like to be

it encroaches upon
the mind’s empty
saddle

upon the
mind’s dream’s
empty spotlight

forever
never
the hero
never the
rider

no, all it can do
is sit and wait
for death to
take it

until it burns out
fully
nakedly
and innocently

in the spotlight
of the moon
or sun

this stalemate body of mine

this pale-future
body of mine

what a shame it is
that I shall go down
with you


            things of beauty

I hear you singing in the shower.
bloodcurdling:
            the way it eases the air
            in the room.

the hot water touching your skin
beating down upon your melody
blending into it
lifting it.

I lay in the bed with all of your fire
in the other room.

I’d like to sift through the sweet air
of your voice
and catch every note for my memories

but something there
something here
holds back my smile.

I don’t want you to forget this:
            how you don’t know
            this moment for me.

how beauty is behind the curtain.
how what twists me up inside
            are the things
            of beauty.