it was you all along
it was you all along
To think that a poet is speaking to anyone,
is to know that the message
is meant for everyone,
a target demographic is elusive
when your thoughts are exclusive
to the words inside of my head,
reaction specific to the situation,
but it can’t be new clothes,
a fresh coat of paint,
or that makeup on your face,
because one day
all those external things will fade away.
it’s like you knew what I needed
before I thought I should have it,
women want to believe in their man,
they’ll coach him when they can,
but if he begins to lose her faith
she’ll start to turn away,
and with that dissolving of fate
she’ll begin to hate the one
who caused the change.
Like a trip to the dentist,
you can’t hide behind self-consciousness
when the proof is not only in the pudding
but last weekend's meth binge
and the fact that your last upper
was taken before supper
and without the food proper food
the nutrition your teeth need
has caused a deficiency in vitamin D,
“Open your mouth.”
But you don’t
because you have a fear
of a tooth falling out.
It’s as if something is pulling us down,
the weight of gravity
is sad to see
when those with dreams
pass on by me,
“What do you mean?”
“It’s not that I’m unhappy,” I say.
“But their success is challenging.”
“Oh now you’re making fun of me.”
“I am,” I say.
He turns away.
“Because look me in the eye
and tell me if you really wanted it
you wouldn’t have tried another way?”
“Oh I’m too busy.”
“Oh ok,” I say.
“Swing by and chill.”
“I’ve got to get back to work.”
“It’s the weekend.”
“I know,” I say.
“But I’ve got this poem about you to write,
my current documentary movie,
a screenplay, college, and now a new buddy
whose story I need to learn how to tell.”
It’s the evolution of the soul
that I think about as well,
like how many centuries
did it take to develop
the idea of empathy,
that ability
being very different than sympathy,
like the fact that
I don’t feel sorry for you,
and wouldn’t want you to for me,
because mankind is lovely,
but today those same people are lonely
and have no idea what to do productively
with the time that they’d so easily give away,
will this line affect your day
or is the knowledge of shared circumstance
a trivial thing
in a society
that will eventually drift away?