"Common Knowledge" • Connor Oberst (by Scott Laudati)

You were a kid once 

and named songs like epitaphs 

because the gun 

was always against your head 

and the white keys 

weren’t enough back then.

But the Gods are unkind 

and the streets crack from wheels 

dragging under old steel. 

The crowds count down now

but the fat lady never sings.

There was a poem 

you put into every song

about an early death 

because 

like a warmer winter or a Gideons Bible

life rarely seems like a gift.

And when the lights come on

the crowd still has some beer

in their cups,

they paid the cover,

your sweat wasn’t enough.

Get back out there.

Pull the ghosts from the 8-track.

You can sleep tomorrow as the van

pulls headfirst into a sunrise

and somewhere long ago

you might remember a kid

whose only dream was this life.

Scott Laudati is the author of Play the Devil, Hawaiian Shirts in the Electric Chair, and more. He lives in Brooklyn and runs Bone House, Inc.