Carla Sarett

Don't Worry Baby

for Brian Wilson

America loses my

beautiful beach boy my

Caroline No

deuce-coupe dreams on

East Coast

frost-bitten days I hear

guitars & learn the

hurt in a boy’s eyes as he

imagines a place that’s

joyful & nothing’s quite the same after

knowing it’s never only that

locking the rest out on

mornings playing The Beach Boys in

New Jersey 

on a snowy day hearing

Pet Sounds with my brother and after

quiet together in his neat

room we’re happy as

surfers U.S.A as secret

Thunderbirds we ride

under super-hot sand & Brian’s

voice sings don’t

worry baby, don’t worry baby

Xanax or any god I invent

you understand not even

Zeus can make everything turn out all right

Carla Sarett is a contributing editor at New Verse Review. She writes poetry, fiction and, occasionally, essays. She has been nominated for the Pushcart, Best American Essays, Best Microfictions, and Best of the Net. Her latest poetry chapbook, Any Excuse for a Party, is out from Bainbridge Island Press. Carla has a PhD from University of Pennsylvania and is based in San Francisco.