Scarlet Leaf Review

Three of my poems ("The Back", "The Fellowship" and "Art") are in this month's edition of Scarlet Leaf Review. Scroll down the page to see me:
https://www.scarletleafreview.com/poems15

Oddball Magazine

My poem, "Vacant Seats", was published in Oddball Magazine this month. You can view it here: https://oddballmagazine.com/2018/01/03/poem-by-r-j-zeman/

A Warm Hug From God

She was
twenty-one,
a stripper
and a single mom.
She was pretty:
blonde hair
and
enormous
green eyes.
I watched her
shoot up
one day
on the floor.
She cooked up
a pill
in a dirty spoon,
and then
injected it
into her arm.
Her eyes
glazed over;
I asked her
what it felt like.
She told me
it was like getting
a warm hug
from God.
She mumbled
something else,
then
nodded out.
She passed out
softly,
slowly
against a dresser.
I walked outside
to smoke,
leaving her
with her
Higher Power.

Commerce

I watch
old women
push
shopping carts
in and out
of the Dollar General.
They buy
the most
mundane things:
shampoo,
pretzels,
paper towels.
They walk
their carts
to late model cars
in the
hot sun.
They put
their items away,
softly,
carefully
and then
drive off
to mid-size
suburban homes.
I sit
and watch them,
chain-smoking
my Pall Malls.
Their lives
are ticking by
and my life
is ticking by
in this
tiny parking lot
in the
middle of
nowhere.

Poetry Super Highway

Hey guys:


     I am the poet of the week at Poetry Super Highway. You can view it at http://poetrysuperhighway.com/psh/

Tattoos

He sits
outside
of a store,
drunk,
wearing a wife beater.
He holds
a bag of beer
in
one hand
and a cell phone
in the other.
He tells me
he's
waiting
for a ride.
I notice
his last name
tattooed
across his arm
and a scar
on his
neck.
The phone rings.
"Where the
fuck are you?"
he yells.
We sit there
for a few more minutes,
waiting.
Eventually,
a car pulls up.
He gets into it,
sets down his
beer,
and waves goodbye.
They take off,
into
the darkness,
into the unknown,
into
oblivion.

The Ginger Collect

One of my poems, "The Plague", was just published in the new issue of The Ginger Collect. You can view it here:


https://thegingercollect.com/issue-three-the-ginger-collect/issue-three-poetry/theplague/