(x = space)

x

x

Shut the Door

x

My neighbors slam their doors

Almost as matters

Of style

x

I don’t know why these

Concussions

x

Are the people frustrated?

x

(¿)They want to send a message

To me

Or to each other

Or the world

That won’t hear or be

Impressed and

Certainly

Won’t

Change?

x

This is why

I slam the door

(one of these)

Though it’s not my style when

I’m better

Or when maybe

The world hasn’t hit me first

x

I don’t know

x

People are weird

x

I am weird

x

We so easily turn people in

Our heads into

Things

As if we could transmogrify

In the academy

For turning people into things

x

And even objects might

Deserve

Some consideration:

Not be burned

For instance

When there’s value

In the form

Or the condition

x

Or liking

Or an interest in preserving;

x

But objects by and large

No longer matter

When they used to be

People

And now that we’ve changed them

x

And now we’ve changed them

We might

And honestly,

Sadly

Certainly will

Use them disposably

x

Surrender life to

Look the other way

And only

See a thing

Only fit for burning,

Burning

A heat

To match our own

x

And I have made

So much

From a door slam

(all right,

many slams),

x

Though I think you know—peer

Person and

Ersatz (peer) magician—what

I mean

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Oumaima Ben Chebtit on Unsplash

x