T.S. Eliot Was Wrong (or, How We Know "The Wasteland" Was Not Written by a Woman)

"I'm leaving you," he
says, while packing to go. I
was facing down Death.

"I cheated on you,"
he says, telling me what I
had already known.

"I love you," he says,
"but I don't like your body
when we are in bed."

THIS is the way the
world ends. Not with a bang, nor
even a whimper,

but with unkind words
said to those most in need, those
we say we love the most.

~ written August 29, 2010

Mondawmin MVA at Closing Time

"Now serving number
ninety at counter sixteen,"
robot voice drones on...

"That's why I say GOD
bless you," a man says to a
stranger behind him.

I pay bills. Children
crying. Women on phones say ~
"He grown, he too grown..."

"My phone 'bout to die
they had me on hold so long."
Lives intersect here.

Beautiful little
girl with braids smiles at me for
no reason I smile

Earlier I was
crying. My pain and struggles
merge with ev'ryone's.

~ written August 25, 2010