free verse

Are You Alive?

/ dowdicus / Leave a comment 
They installed a bookshelf in the faculty lounge
And congratulated themselves for
Trying to bring us together
With a battlefield.

I look for change every week.
Some proselytizer 
Put Dinesh D'Souza on the shelf.
I stole into the lounge at night
And put D'Souza in the garbage.

I like to see the books nobody wants:
Two Dares to Lead,
And six Hillbilly Elegies,
Gifts from our betters 
On how we can be better

Looking for survivors,
I shelved a copy of Settlers 
And Labor Law for the Rank and Filer
But they haven't moved.

I'm looking for friends,
But I can't find the living.

Severed Connection

/ dowdicus / Leave a comment 
Late nights for days–
unable to sleep or focus or do anything,
racing thoughts down the freeway.
I was thinking of the women I know and how lovely they are,
when something reminded me of you, and I reached out–
and you were excited about the people 
who still matter to you

I slept last night.
No more racing.
I was thinking how I used to be part of your life,
and how quietly you slipped away.
You didn’t even leave a note.
I sat in a chair,
thinking at nothing,
until I felt bad

Bitter thoughts may be cruel–
but joy is no ally.
The good days are a Trojan Horse.
The bad days are reality.
And each day rewrites the last,
except when emptiness comes–
and both inside and outside the horse,
there is 

nothing.