A Mismatched Pair

Self-Improvement

for Sameen

I give myself a belly ache with coffee in the morning.
I give myself a headache drinking liquor through the night.
There may be better ways of living. None has yet occurred to me.
Even though I'm getting old, who knows? Someday one might.


During a Period Known to Some as Tuesday

Three teen-aged girls get out of a car
And walk into a shopping mall. They
Speak to each other from time to time,
But mostly they gaze at their little phones.
One sees a dress in a window and says,
Oh, that's cute.” The others look up
And agree. As sunlight pours in through
The mall's roof's skylight, reflecting
Brilliantly off of its floor, Shelby, the
Pretty one, tells Tess and Chloe
A teen idol's getting divorced.

A young man, one head in the sea
Among others and lifeless bodies,
Sees the land. He'll be saved to
Face an uncertain future. A man
In a uniform pulls him ashore,
Points toward some others, who
Stand, soaked, and shiver. He
Says something terse, and harsh,
Incoherent. The young man walks
Off where the finger was pointed
And wonders where he's going
To go.

A starfish not far down the beach
From the man dies on the rocks.
The tide has gone out. One by one,
The cells in its body expire. An episode
Ends. A process is finished. The
Starfish which was never knew that
It was, any more than the sea knows
Itself.

Viewed through their telescope,
This planet's surface, like those
Of others, constantly swirls. What
Might that mean? “The usual forces,”
One of them says, and they leave.



Poetry by Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
Read 75 times
Written on 2016-09-20 at 18:15

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