The February 15th prompt in The Daily Poet, by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano, is to ‘[w]rite a poem in which not a single word is true.’ The result must be one of the most twisted poems I have ever written…

One time in Reno
Johnny Cash shot me
just to watch me die

But there was no way
I was going to let that happen
not on my watch

I let him get close enough
to put his hand to my mouth
to check my breath

Then I spun my body around
catching him by surprise
He never saw it coming

I knocked his feet
out from under him
and the son of a bitch went down

I took the Bowie knife
I carried on my belt
and slashed his thighs real good

I left him there
his legs ripped open
and walked out of Reno for good

The papers said
he’d gone into rehab
but Johnny and I knew the truth…

(15 February 2015)