Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Writing the Apocalypse was a weekly series featuring

the poems, essays, and recollections of NYC resident Puma Perl.

Then came the vaccine, and hope–and uncertainty.  And so, from time to time, Perl will return to continue

Writing the Apocalypse.

Ticket to Hell | TEXT & PHOTOS BY PUMA PERL (unless noted otherwise)

Scientists say

the world is ending

Sounded believable

So, I quit my job,

fucked the wrong people,

stopped paying rent,

and developed a drug habit

But the world didn’t end

It’s just a Velvet Underground

ticket to hell

Another apocalypse

and we can’t be late

Grab the rock n roll shirt

and a few pair of socks,

some black underwear,

and a high-powered rifle

All bases covered

except for the drug habit

and the people I fucked

who are still all wrong.

© puma perl, 04/27/2019

Click here to view the Ticket to Hell video.  Vocals Puma Perl, original music and video production, Joe Sztabnik. 

Puma Perl is a poet and writer, with five solo collections in print. The most recent is Birthdays Before and After (Beyond Baroque Books, 201). She is the producer/creator of “Puma’s Pandemonium,” which brings spoken word together with rock and roll, and she performs regularly with her band Puma Perl and Friends. She’s received three New York Press Association awards in recognition of her journalism, and is the recipient of the 2016 Acker Award in the category of writing. Her most recent books can be found by clicking here.

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