Pathos
Michael Lambert
I didn’t cry when my friend died
until I heard John Denver on the jukebox.
I don’t like John Denver
I thought.
Pathos does not ask for a show
of hands.
I blame Catholicism for my paranoid state
but I found a yarmulke under the passenger
seat of my rental and now my life
is changed forever.
I put the yarmulke on my head
for no reason specifically
and saw myself in the rear-view,
head slightly tingly.
Jesus-toast jokes are thought
to have originated thus
which may or may not be important
to many of you
but I am listening to the sounds
and relaying as much as I am able.
Michael Lambert is author of Circumnavigation (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014), loosely based on self-propelled travel in North America. Recent work has appeared in Bayou Magazine, Timber Journal, and Midwestern Gothic. A graduate of the University of Alabama’s M.F.A. program in creative writing, he lives and works in Wisconsin.
Mikayla Faivre is from North Freedom, Wisconsin, and is majoring in Animal Science. She has always been enamored by storytelling and spends her spare time reading or writing. Mikayla is a recipient of the David Cole Award in Creative Writing. This is her second year as an editor for the Spirit Lake Review. Find her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikfaivre/