Performed by Val Cole

Drop Me Off in the Wilderness

1

Drop me off in the wilderness
By the river shore where we were before
By the abandoned shack by the railroad track
Slow down and I’ll jump out the door
And find my own way back, I guess,
From the valley of excess
And the Land of 10,000 Dances
No one can say I never took chances
The answer to all your questions is yes
I lost every game from checkers to chess
Can’t blame it all on the hands I was dealt
While I was tightening my belt
Nothing to do now but live with less
In another location
Drop me off in the wilderness
Call it a vacation

2

Or an excavation
Digging up an ancient mess
Remember when you begged to be
Dropped off in the wilderness?
What a scamp you were at 69
Sexting an heiress to millions
With a slithering tongue
Palavering a pubic kiss
In the throes of throttling bliss
Across the fields of intimate internet texts
From yesteryear, and yet.
That led you back to the sheer cliff
Of time, to pay a final debt
Another bad bet
You were so stressed
You wanted to be dropped off in the wilderness

3

Drop me off in the wilderness
Slow down and I’ll jump out
You said, but I digress,
No one needs to know what this is all about
I never saw you disappear
You were never there, never fear
The tourniquet is tight around the wound
The bleeding stopped, the nickel dropped,
The end is coming soon
Not soon enough to call your bluff,
You had me at hello
But nothing stayed the same as it was a long time ago
You were on a different plane, I was on the ground
The motel walls were paper thin, we couldn’t make a sound
You were like a little bird falling from a nest
When I dropped you off in the wilderness

-K. C. Wilson

Get to know the poet:

1) What is the theme of your poem?

If it has a theme it is not an overly serious theme. As bad as things may seem to be, they can always get worse, or better. You never know. Sometimes things look grim and there seems like nothing good up ahead, but that is just a transitory perception.

2) What motivated you to write this poem?

The line came to me out of nowhere, Drop me off in the wilderness. It seemed like a title, or a line in a song or a poem. I had no idea where it might lead. It started to grow, line by line until I had a verse. It was fun to write. I didn’t agonize over it at all.

2) How long have you been writing poetry?

I wrote poems that look like songs and songs that look like poems that look like songs. Every now and then it feels right to just call it a poem.

4) If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would
that be?

Henry Miller

5) What influenced you to submit to have your poetry performed by a
professional actor?

I listened to my own recording of the poem and thought for sure it could sound better than that.

6) Do you write other works? scripts? Short Stories? Etc..?

I have two novels published, The Route, and Saint Bob Day. Short fiction of mine has appeared in various publications. My screenplays have placed in major contests but lately my attention span prefers writing poems, short poems.

7) What is your passion in life?

I like to make people laugh. I guess my passion is humor, and music, and writing novelty songs.