Overdose by Howie Good

One by one, the mourners heft
a shovelful of cold, lumpy earth
from the heap beside the grave
and tip it, with seeming reluctance,
into the hole. The first shovelfuls
hit the lid of the plain pine coffin
with a thump. “Saddest sound
in the world,” my brother says
as he hands off the shovel to me.
Why even mention it? I wear nothing red,
nothing that is the color of blood.



Howie Good, a journalism professor at SUNY New Paltz, is the author of The Loser’s Guide to Street Fighting, winner of the 2017 Lorien Prize for Poetry from Thoughtcrime Press.