“Call to Adventure,” by Dane Slutzky (Poetry ’21)

2021 poetry graduate Dane Slutzky was recently featured in Zocalo Public Square. Read an excerpt of “Call to Adventure” below:

Call to Adventure

After the car accident I bought the game :: now when I close my eyes I see the cliff-sides and dense tree cover, the fog shrouded island and the shimmering lake :: I keep busy collecting ore, mining it so I can buy things, special carrots and outfits for every type of extreme temperature or weather event :: I barely remember sliding backwards across the highway :: I’m 100% there collecting mushrooms and insects and killing reanimated skeletons :: the music still in my head face down on the chiropractor’s table, swelling to its jaunty crescendo :: heat on my neck, my shoulders finally slumping down from what feels like their permanent position by my ears :: I’m thinking strategy, what fortress to attack next ::

Read the poem in its entirety here: https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2021/04/09/dane-slutzky-poem-call-to-adventure/chronicles/poetry/