A simple, heartfelt thank you for sharing your world. I feel your loss, the rage, the silence.

(“loss is our birthright:” there is something so very familiar about this part of your poem, and yet I cannot place it. Some other text, something read very recently, perhaps even something you wrote elsewhere.)

do we ever forgive the dead
for leaving us
for failing
for giving up
knowing we too
will do the same
in our turn.

how alone they seem
trapped in their silence.
left behind still waiting.
all that anger
unresolved.

Thanks, Tara!

Thanks for the note. Colin. I respect a writer’s opinion!

…
the barroom
boasts —
six guys lined up
in the Broadway
pool hall —
you with
your pool cue
like an animal trainer
needing always
to kick the shit
out of the not you
that is you
…