Data Viewing Device

by Nate Pritts

All the whys & wherefores are hackneyed,
the reasons all gone stale. Today
I’m just glad to have a life; my scalp takes on the pinkish sheen
indicative of such good fortune. Existence, friends, is hair-raising.

A base hit gets you to first but I’m greedy;
I’m swinging for the fences every time, imagining
the cheers when I come home. The umpire clears his throat
& yells “Safe!” We can try to hold the slippery

fabric of this exquisite world but that earthy satin
is not meant for the timid to caress
between their chapped fingers. I’d like to take the wheel,
grab the proverbial bull by his horns & wrestle him to the ground

& when my shrink says I see I’ll give him such a pinch
he’ll learn quick not to mess with a matador.
He’ll learn to let me fight the knockdown, drag-out brawls
I pick with myself all by myself.


Nate Pritts took his BS at SUNY Brockport, his MFA from Warren Wilson College and his Ph.D. from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Currently, he teaches at the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts, a residential high school for gifted students,& at Northwestern State University. His poems have recently appeared in Rattle, Cimarron Review, Solo, Dogwood and 5am.

Nate Pritts was nominated for Poets Under 30 by the storySouth editors.