This Is Not A Love Poem

About the harsh difficulties of life.

This poem is not a love poem. This is a poem,

About my childhood friend, who had her rightful

Innocence and clothes stolen from her in a stairwell,

With the word “no” barely clinging to her lips or his ears.

 

This poem is not a love poem. This is a poem,

About my good neighbor, who had his only son

Taken away from him in a car crash, reasoned by 

Nothing but the crude liquid of alcohol and gasoline.

 

This poem is not a love poem. This is a poem,

About my old teacher, who lost his sister, who had

Hoped to become a doctor, to the dark abyss of smoke

And Tobacco in temptation, irony and hate filled cigarettes

 

This poem is not a love poem. This is a poem,

About you. To make you see, that the bad things

That have happened, and the people that you have

Lost along the way, do not define you. They change you.

 

They make you stronger. 

Reviews

[Parsimony]

Resonating words with purpose. Tiny vignettes of morality and humanity. The last line seems out of sort but I guess it's to bring the message home.

[BB_199]

I like it