National Poetry Month: Alx Johns

Fuck you, Cheerios!
(Alx Johns)

Your dirty, little sawdust circles
staring back milkly:
“Oooh...
like you're not going to eat us.
You need us.
We were there
in your high chair.
Taught you tactility,
had your mom
saying our name more than yours there,
didn't we?
Sent her that free
Cheerios activity book.
Slid down your throat
at that vicious kitchen table
before you left
to navigate the breastscape
of the schoolhall.
Go on, throw us on the floor.
Crush us under your heel
like you did before
There'll always be more;
we're cheap
and we're here now with our supply
of fiber in your bowl
and you've got to get to work.”

ALX JOHNS is a regular performer at Athens Word of Mouth. He is a poet, rock musician, and college professor who, despite his youth, is old enough to remember The Metroplex, The World of Sid and Marty Krofft, and other 20th century Atlanta marvels since disappeared. He likes the work of Paul Bowles, Mark Twain, and Flannery O'Connor, enjoys the films of Andrei Tarkovsky and Stanley Kubrick, and has played pool with John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl.