A Poem by Joe Krausman

The Light Bulb Died

He tried to dial the bulb man,
the phone died.
He went to his car,
the battery died.
His wife fried eggs,
she died.
He ate his hamburger,
the burger was dead.
The refrigerator croaked,
the buttermilk died.
He opened his wallet,
the wallet was empty.
Goldfish expired
in the water.
The water died.
The firing squads
killed thousands.
The squads died,
the bullets died.
A star went out,
a man died.
The funeral was arranged
by the will be dead.
The cemetery died.
The dead died,
from the dust
a bud bloomed.

Joe Krausman was the MCA Fellow in Playwriting at Smith College.  He has an MFA in Fiction writing from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where he held the Massachusetts Fiction Writing Fellowship.  He has taught ag Grinnell College in Iowa and the University of Massachusetts.  In 2015 his poem Shipwreck, won second prizein the Raynes Prize contest.  It was selected from hundreds of poems.  He was a finalist in the contest in 2013 and 2014.