Steven Hendrix

Bartleby, the reader

As I get older,
and work weighs
heavier and heavier
on the soul,
I dream not of curling
into a fetal ball
and doing nothing,
but sitting in front
of my bookshelf
amongst all the
books I haven’t read yet
and the ones I want
to reread before I die
and starting to read
one after the other
as I race against time
and the fear of not
finishing them all.

NOTHING DOING

I read a Locklin poem
and it makes me laugh
and I immediately text
Christian because it reminds
me of our days at
Read On Till Morning
sitting around doing nothing
but shooting the shit and
making each other laugh
and I tell him how I
wish I had recorded
some of our conversations
back then because
they would make good poems
that would make
other people laugh
there are probably not
two funnier people
in the world when
they are sitting around
doing nothing together

morning meetup

coffee has never
made me nervous
so it must be you
sitting across from me
not even at the same table
we drink our coffee together
while you wait for someone
and I wait for no one

Steven Hendrix received his M.A. in Comparative Literature from CSULB. He co-hosted the pop-up bookstore and reading series Read On Till Morning in San Pedro, CA and is author of the poetry collection Leave With More Than You Came With (Arroyo Seco Press, 2019) and the chapbook Every Breath Matters Most (Beach Chair Press, 2023). His work has appeared in Chiron Review, Slouching Beast Journal, Silver Birch Press, Drunk Monkeys, and Pocket Lint, among others. His website readontillmorning.org will be coming soon(ish). He currently lives in San Francisco with his partner Erin and his sons Langston and Paxton.