38 Dollar Store Candles

Pessimism is natural,
like Type-1 Diabetes,
liver, heart disease.
The Caddy, Miata,
they’re not there
because you’re
now half-full
or half-alive,
but -dead.
Drive.

Carson Pytell is a writer living outside Albany, NY whose work has appeared in numerous venues online and in print, including Artifact Nouveau, The Virginia Normal, NoD Magazine, Rabid Oak and Bluepepper, among others. He serves on the editorial board of the journal Coastal Shelf, and his short collection, First-Year (Alien Buddha Press, 2020) and chapbook, Trail (Guerrilla Genesis Press, 2020) are now available. In December 2020 he is slated to participate in the Tupelo Press 30/30 Project.