poetry – Page 57 – Poétique

Empathy

Seeking empathy will
Gain you nothing
So many days I have
Wandering in aimlessness
Where has all the
Empathy gone?
Was I living under
Some rock
When the devotion
To greedy emotion
Settled in
Head in a trash bag
Or under a shadow
I swear only a pillow
In my sleep
Did it happen in my sleep?
That I woke up from a dream or
Some made up fantasy
That people are
Capable of empathy?
Folks comparing their own
Breakdowns and setbacks
To yours because they can’t
Climb out of their
Own pits and here
I see myself running round
Chasing empathy
Hoping you’ll see me
Chasing empathy
Wondering recklessly
Chasing empathy
Feelings escaping me
Chasing empathy

Become

Each note
Each line
Every chord
I design
Haunts the hallway
With drowning sounds
Of suffocation
Chewing away the tears
Letting out
Again in backbends
I find
Finally with flowers
Prominent laughter
I see smiling
Glints of
What was forgotten
And what can
Become found

Outline

Is it my own disdain
That plays make believe
With myself about the
Unsightly behaviors of others
Or a perfectionistic trait
To want the best outcome
For us all
Am I attacked
Or the attacker?
A silent encroachment
A timid lunge
An irritation that
Scratches at the back
Of my head exploding
My mind into what is
Suddenly shattered
Broken in mirror-like
Shards of brightness
Highlighting the darkest
Parts of the back spatter
Of a lifetime of fun
Only outlined, chalked
Crime de la cœur
Two possible explanations
Boredom or voracity
Either way only
Tenderness can find
A way through the maze
Of oversensitivity
A little context in foreign
Castrating remarks
Neither clever or otherwise
Smart enough I
Parry and shirk out the guardrail
Opening up

Sober and Alone

She wants only for herself
She wants only for her
She waits only for herself
She waits only for her
Nothing left
Nothing left
Bouncing off
The hopeless hap
The helpless gap
The hapless crap
She wants only for herself
I don’t believe that
It can’t be true
I need a smoke
I need a drink
I need more time to think
But I prefer to do it
Sober and alone
With a piano
Passed out drunk
On the floor
Intoxicated only
By the music
Of my deafening heartbeat

Happily Escaped

You don’t apply the same
Expectations you have on others
To yourself and everything’s
A syndrome of something else
Fuck the syndromes
Maybe we’re just human
What happens when the love
Breaks down and the brutal
Emotional stabbing goes on
Lest life abandon us all
Must we find time to enjoy it
Before we come
To the end of it all
Say goodbye to the cunt
Of an existence
That was holding you back
A person
A place
Or a thing
Waking up from the night
Of denial I am reminded
Of a future self
Almost presented as
A past recollection
That you are only
Looking out for yourself
Driving a wedge
You may weaken your own
Empathy by placating
A cinematic character
Of yourself in some
Casablancan way
Being consciously capable
Befalling my actions
I have happily escaped

Window

My normalcy is electronic
Insanity world crashing down
No video stalemate a wall
Most vulnerable and
Succulent for the taking
I stood at the window
Of my back porch
Barefoot and oblivious
Repeating
What’s next!
What’s next?
Many of us want to be
Held I’m sure today
I felt that way a bit more
Like I was hoping to
Crawl back into bed with
Someone or even bolster
Up some gladitude
Knowing I had nowhere
To be or go but back into
Some silly situation
In a messy bed
But the grey sky
Offered me many delights
Knowing that if not today
Some other

Better Ideas

Can we overstream?
Exploit the bandwidth
All too often many of us
Take so many nothings
And turn them into somethings
A confluence of almost
Fate like circumstances
Leading us to be
Captured by the enemy
Believing our only hope
Is left to the art of
Abandoning ourselves
According to fate
And spiral notebooks
What then shall we do
To entertain ourselves
Catch fire to the ends
Of our robes and run
Madly through the hallways
Of some less than favorable
Hotel that was easy to
Book because no one else
Wanted to stay there?
Write poems to one another
Read them and then
Roll them up into
Wands of sage or
Peace pipes and
Smudge one another?
Actually sounds like a
Great weekend if
You haven’t any better ideas

Stranger

You never look so hot
As when you’re flipping me off
Hand out the window
Even with a cigarette
So morose and yet
So delicious I can
Taste the salt in the air
From the crevices
Of your fingers
You make me a hedonistic
Lap lazy version of myself
Only wanting to taste you
Only wanting to smell the
Back of your neck
Is that what you meant
When you gave me the bird?
I’m nobody’s whore
But I could go a few rounds
With a stranger like you

Blue Jungle

She knew that I was beautiful
On the inside mostly innocent
My god why is it so empty
Sand ridden and desolate
All the things I shared and
Everything that was built
A hope for something treasured
Like a seed that would
Grow into a tree to meet
A steel bridge of memories
All my lights were blinking
In the traffic of my heart
And there you were
I’m not sure what this is
All about
I’m falling apart
And never felt so whole
I can think of nothing
That would bring me
More delight almost
Like I’ve caught a slight
Case of amnesia
In a magnificent
Moment of time
Fragrant like a blue jungle
Swept away by the
Breeze of tomorrow
Stricken with outrageous
Opportunities dripping
From the end
Of my future

Behind Me

I saw my life flashing
Before me but not in
The way that I pictured
It would be
Somehow smarter
Than before and
A little louder than I
Ever recalled living it
But, it honestly didn’t matter
Once the end found its way
To the beginning of a dream
My smile was captivated
Fool poem of my love
Fool poet for my love
Obliterating me with
Your kissing matter
Your selfish warmth
Laid me down before the sun
On a blanket of
I don’t know what until
I suddenly remembered
I had to go to work
Not for you or for me
But for the sake of
Our unknown future
And so I quickly gathered
Myself and finished
Brewing the coffee
Closing the morning door
Behind me