Kevin Ridgeway

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I open my eyes
and they are all
staring up at me
on my billboard
in designer
underwear
and they
have twisted
thoughts
about my
love handles
until I am
forgotten
about
when
they turn
into the
next aisle
where
they
browse
men's
socks
and
swimwear
while 
I wonder
when I will
wake up
from this
nightmare
all alone
and in my
underwear.

Kevin Ridgeway lives and writes in Long Beach, California. Recent work has appeared in Chiron Review, Spillway, Nerve Cowboy, Big Hammer, San Pedro River Review, Trailer Park Quarterly, Gravel Magazine, and The Mas Tequila Review, among others. In 2015, his poem, “Her Dead Husband’s Ashes,” was awarded second place in Cultural Weekly’s annual competition, the Jack Grapes Poetry Prize. A two-time Pushcart nominee, Ridgeway is the author of six chapbooks of poetry. The latest, Contents Under Pressure, is now available from Crisis Chronicles Press.