a king in his castle

at 08:22 he awakens and pushes
away the tarp he uses as blanket

he’s already dressed up
and wears shoes

looks around at the blackening
dampness of the walls

stretches a bit

takes off his coat and
the blouse
and the shirt
and the tank-top

grabs a tissue
wets it with rubbing alcohol
and uses it to wash his
armpits. He knows it’s good for killing
the bad smelling bacteria

He knows much about how the world works
for he’d been to school and even
one year of collage in his youth

When his armpits dry
he dresses up
and gets out and checks under the
big flower pots that stand before the
entry to the building

He is wise to keep his savings there
Otherwise the others would’ve
smelled it on him and would’ve
robbed him a long time ago
He counts the money
and feels satisfied with the sum

At 09:30 he eats a warm meal at the
local soup kitchen
and turns down
four bums who ask to borrow money

At 10:10 he walks up to the
big casino and
enters

Now his imagination kicks in

Behind the entry
he is greeted with luxury, he walks
on the red carpet
and sees the bright lights
and the game attendants who greet him
like a king

He is the king in his vision
and he had returned to his castle

He smiles
and walks around leisurely

A man needs to have but a clear
vision of a bright future
to live a happy present

He finds a seat
in front of a slot machine

puts the money into
the bill acceptor
and starts playing

He is one of the happiest
customers the casino
ever had

sometimes I think I’m just too good for you by Bogdan Dragos

He jumped off the building and the metallic wings carried him high towards the clouds where others like him swam in absolute bliss but then something hit his head and he woke up turned around in bed and realized there was blood trickling from his eyebrow The girl besides him was holding a stapler in […]

sometimes I think I’m just too good for you by Bogdan Dragos

childhood’s villain

Father used his fists
a lot
Though never on the kids

On the walls
and the furniture
and the doors
and the mailbox
and the fence
and the neighbors
and random people on the street
and strangers in the bar
and a few times the poor dog
and one time on mother

He was the childhood’s
villain

To defeat him one had
to become a hero

and becoming a hero
took time

And today
after all this time
the villain of childhood
was dead

He died at the hands of
some other character,
a neutral one

A cop who told him to
drop to the ground
and father didn’t
so he got shot

That was it
The end of his saga

Utterly unsatisfactory
anticlimactic
disappointing
just bad

There was no final showdown
between hero and villain

because those things
only happen in
childhood
and childhood had ended a
long time ago

how can you be such a monster? by Bogdan Dragos

j re crivello's avatarGobblers by Masticadores

he spent four weeks
away from his family
in a rented apartment
somewhere on
the outskirts
of town

he told them that
he needed this
he was a writer
needed to focus on his work
conducting his research
undistracted

his little girl would call
from time to time
asking daddy to hold his
phone against his forehead
while she made a kissing sound
on the other line

very wholesome
except he lied about
holding the phone
against his forehead

“How can you be
such a monster?”
asked the naked prostitute
sitting on the edge of his bed

“Shut up,” he said
tossed his phone on the desk
and unbuckled

View original post

too late is too late

Wherever you hear about a drinking
problem
you expect the man to be
violent and vulgar and turn abusive
and destructive

well
it wasn’t the case with him

There was a drinking problem there
for sure
but all it cursed him with
was sleep and sometimes
verses

He’d start writing after
drinking

But he was a kind man and a great
lover
and his wife had a hard time
convincing her family and friends
and neighbors
that a man who has a separate trashcan
only for bottles and beer cans
is not a man who strikes his wife,
not even with words

Well, none of
them read his poetry

and by the time he died of
cirrhosis it was
too late

You can’t scold a dead man for
having written thousands upon thousands
of pages of
splatter-punk gore and abuse fantasies
involving his wife
her family
her friends
neighbors
and everyone he knew, including minors

Two Bullets

.'s avatarThe Yard: Crime Blog

By Bogdan Dragos

she came out of the bathroom with
the pink towel wrapped
around her and found
him sprawled on the bed

very thoughtful

He held in his right hand
two bullets
that he constantly rubbed against each
other with a kind
of obsession

She jokingly said, “So, one for me
and one for you?”

“No,” he said. “One for everyone else in
the world but you and I.”

“Haha, nice,” she said. “Anyway, why do you
always carry those bullets
around?”

“Eh, no particular reason,” he lied

The bullets carried all the
reasons in the world. He
carried them in his pocket ever since seventh
grade when he was mere
steps away from using them on his
bullies

But then
one day
she just showed up and was nice
to him
and the depression became a little less heavy,
just enough to be carried through
the years of…

View original post 125 more words

The New Guy

New feature in The Yard: Crime Blog
ヽ(´ー`)ノヽ(´ー`)ノヽ(´ー`)ノ

.'s avatarThe Yard: Crime Blog

By Bogdan Dragos

there was a new guy in the park
among the homeless

He arrived just after the mayor had
eradicated all
the tents and improvised huts

and it was easy to spot him
He was the one who
always had a book in his hand, always
reading

“Check out the new guy,” they
said. “An intellectual. Heh, hey buddy,
what you reading that for? Not like
you gonna get a degree that’ll take
your ass outta here anytime soon. Haaahahah!”

He was reading his own poems
from a time when
he was young and his dreams were
still alive

Today nothing was alive
but misery itself

(Bio: Bogdan Dragos supervises casinos for a gambling company, working twelve-hour shifts locked in a dark office full of TV monitors. There he mostly daydreams and writes poems and stories. He also manages a poetry blog at bogdandragos.com
He has a book…

View original post 12 more words

Not Ready to Join the Stars Just Yet

Thank you to The Yard: Crime Blog for featuring this one
*⁂((✪⥎✪))⁂*

.'s avatarThe Yard: Crime Blog

By Bogdan Dragos

the girl with burnt face and
faded eyes
would call out to him

She would call out to him in those nights
of wandering alone around the
town
as a way to combat insomnia

She was barefoot
and wore but a simple nightgown
and if he got close enough
she would reach for his hand

caress it a few times
while staring him in the eyes
with her eyes that looked like painted
marbles

Then she would give a nod
and ask him to follow

All the way up that unfinished building
all the way up to the ninth floor
all the way to the margin
all the way to the corner

To watch the stars

But her eyes weren’t looking towards the sky
They were looking down at the lights
below

And every night she would jump down
to join the stars
and he wouldn’t follow

View original post 67 more words

Green Cotton Candy

.'s avatarThe Yard: Crime Blog

by Bogdan Dragos

from 07:30 in the morning and until
09:00 he stands by
the clothes store
and stares at his image in the gray window

He’s wearing a green suit
that now looks kinda brown and feels
in the same time
heavy with accumulated dirt
and light with missing patches

The people pass by him and look either
at their phones or away

At 09:30 he departs from the clothes store
and paces towards the
metro station
where he’ll spend the remainder of the day
playing the accordion for
uninterested ears

Still, some would toss
a coin or two in his hat. Out of mercy
or simply because they
were bothered by the change in their pockets

When the sun sets outside
he emerges from the underground
weighting his earning in one hand

He has a quick pace
despite never eating and never sleeping

The cotton candy stand is…

View original post 94 more words

New feature in The Yard: Crime Blog (Green Cotton Candy)

Feeling super blessed to have my piece "Green Cotton Candy" featured in the illustrious The Yard: Crime Blog.


Many thanks to the editor! 


Read the poem here. 

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

Up ↑