Tristan Robert Lange

nineteen ninety-five

SNAPSHOT
 
year
book
 
compiled
 
nineteen ninety-five.
 
flat-top, spiked
 
strawberry-kissed, blonde
 
america’s average surface:
kid, teen, nice
warm
smile
drawing attention
away
from
 
void verified eyes
the caution no disguise
for the forced lie
 
coming through—like lye—
the frozen teeth of
a snapshot smile
 
within a book
 
year-dated
 
nineteen ninety-five
 
SNAPSHOT
 
a spring thing
gathered
 
back porch steps
sister looking inside
 
grass stoked
bloodshot eyes
blazing smoke spiriting
 
in wisps around...
 
friends?
 
a few now,
even fewer then.
 
looking back
at young me
 
looking down
 
a little bit of company
yet no one really
ever
 
around.
 
SNAPSHOT
 
Kodak disposable
not feeling too posable
 
still lights, camera,
 
yeah,
 
cheese.
 
i want to hang myself
will you help me please?
 
a pitter, a patter,
smoked some pcp
became the mad hatter
 
in fact, even radder,
fell down the ladder
with a gigantic clatter.
 
long hair outgrew a bowl
smoked that all up
 
up in smoke,
nothing left to roll,
 
fuck the bowl
crush these pills
 
ouch...
that stuck to my throat!
 
call me the goat
as i bleat mucus out
 
where’s that sheet?
 
fuck it!—can’t stand this heat!
summer’s over
life more incomplete
 
progression not the fix—
age didn’t stop the torrential drive—
those haunts followed me past
 
nineteen ninety-five.
 
© 2026 Tristan Robert Lange. All rights reserved.
First published on tristanrobertlange.com, June ??, 2026.
 
Tittu