Daniel Yasko was born in rural Michigan before moving to Pittsburgh, PA at the age of 6. While bouncing around from state to state during his teenage years, he began to write to document his experiences. In his poetry he tells his story of homelessness, drug abuse, sex, falling in love, stints in rehabs and state run psych wards, loss, adventure and friendship. Drawing upon raw emotion, he explores the mixture of tragedy, elation and humor found in life’s less than clear path. He is currently working on his first book, “Dyings Not That Bad I Tried it Once in Pittsburgh.” Reach him via email for questions, comments or just a random conversation at danielpicklepoetry@gmail.com and keep an eye out for more excerpts from hi…

As I sit here

Writing you my friend

Its storming

With the ferocity

Of an Old Testament god

Oh how it’s storming!

The air has a chill to it

That reminds me of home

So I’m missing those dirty streets

And our aimless wandering

To find the next thing

That made us feel alive

I’m missing the days we spent

Where our only goal

Wa…

I’ve been feeling less canvas and more easel. It’s been

so hard to feel full of anything anymore. I eat only

to realize I am being eaten. I am guilty on thirty-two counts

of teeth collecting nothing but welfare and plaque. First

my bite, then my bark, so tell me what now have you

come for? I wish for you a misdemeanor of memories

so arresting the clench of wrists behind back stops

your heart. But you keep on beating. You keep on—

you keep on keeping space for space’s sake, or

birthright, and I’ve been feeling like a clock of bones

clacking beneath the dirt; I’ve been feeling like lumber

fish-scaled from fire; I’ve been feeling like fire as

I watch you drop cream into coffee to cut its strength

and grin me down into the blackest grounds. I wish

that was the end of it. I wish for you a toilet with no

drain, or a fuck-you-poem that keeps fucking you

up the way a lie fills a body with heli…

Sketches + Paintings by Emma Eaton

View more of her work @gba412