Black Dahlias
Greg Lutze



● Afternoon Coffee Run

       
clunk 

clunk

on the way to Blackhawk

I hit a rattlesnake

                   (A huge f*cker)

it felt like a speedbump you don’t see coming

         where your stomach hovers in your chest

                                     for a split second

I frantically looked at my floorboards

          to make sure                        he wasn’t in the car

(you can never be too sure about these things)

                             in the rearview I saw him

               twisting

                                      writhing

      like some possessed soul out The Exorcist.


                one black coffee to go, please


Fever Dreams

While the congregation rises for the benediction

Of peace and prosperity for the faithful saints

Father John Misty sings boy band covers

Down at the dive bar in Capitol Hill

Where Kurt Cobain drank his last Blue Ribbon

Before Courtney fed him a shotgun

And ended a generation



● Marionette Strings

i’ve only ever seen one dead body
(not counting movies and such)

one actual 
very gone 
very dead
ex-person

a dance party of mortality
with emergency lights pulsating 
I crept close to the crowd of onlookers 
secretly thankful that
if someone has to die
at least we have a story 
to tell at the dinner party this evening
over a nice sauvignon blanc

or perhaps a chardonnay

his body lay like a puppet 
mindlessly discarded by a child 
who has moved onto a new toy
or offer of ice cream

crooked, broken across the asphalt
as if the Fates took their mythical scissors

and bored with it all 

clipped his marionette strings



●  Southern Charm

She spends most evenings 
in a smoky haze of 

  Old Forester
            cigarettes

and 

                high school yearbooks




Everyday Yesterday

Everyday

I travel highways and nameless roads
Thru deserts on endless pavement
But no matter how far I go
The road always leads me back to 

Yesterday


● 10:53 PM

the motel’s sign stutters

NO VACANCY
VACANCY
VACANCY
NO VACANCY
VACANCY
VACANCY
VACANCY
NO VACANCY

like a star running on empty




Black Dahlias
A selection of photographs and poetry,
exploring the beauty and betrayal of the American dream.
2004 — 2024



Greg Lutze is a mixed-race Asian American artist 
and Co-Founder of VSCO, a photography platform.
greg@vsco.co




© 2024 Greg Lutze
All Rights Reserved
CA 1978 TN
“Oh God, the Aftermath”