EXAGGERATION - Scarriet Editors

You must know I’m not usually excitable,

But how long must I be calm and pleasantly glad?

I have read about love. It was sad.

The man paced outside the window. The woman

Covered her arms in folds of crimson and myrtle.

The tradition arrived every night this year.

Every woman attended. This is no exaggeration;

They crowded, they pushed ahead—even the dearest woman.

I affected learning. I thought this decision up in my own mind.

The poetry readings, seminars; failures in oak,

Scratches, graffiti, partly undressed tables, inside and outside the mind.

I affected poetry. It did no good. I was too calm;

I went on in hushed tones about my childhood;

Stood near her by the window, even laughed.

It wouldn’t do to repeat it now, even if I could.

There is a need to exaggerate, even without drama or poems,

To not flag, to make oneself happy; to pretend a woman’s figure

Will make one happy, and this is all a man needs.

Life is dull. We exaggerate. And so it proceeds.

AT HIS HOUSE - Stephen Dunn

In my friend's face it's not easy to separate

what's serenity, what's despair.

What the mouth suggests the eyes correct,

and what looks like acceptance

is a kind of détente, the world allowed

to encroach only so far.

At his house, we put aside

the large questions: Is there? And if so?

replace them with simple chores.

We bring vegetables in from the garden.

We shuck corn. Is it possible

to be a good citizen without saying a word?

Both his wives thought not, wanted love

to have a language he never learned.

He'd make wine for them from dandelions.

Sundays he'd serve them breakfast in bed.

In his toolbox he was sure he had a tool

for whatever needed to be fixed.

The deed reveals the man, he says.

I don't tell him that it's behind deeds

he and I often hide.

I've got a face for noon, a face for dusk,

a fact he lets slide. Both of us think friendship

is about what needn't be said. 

It seems we're a couple of halves, men

almost here, hardly there. At his house less

feels good. I always come back for more.

Abracadabra Acudubillah - Warsan Shire

Everyday since that bad

thing happened, I've been practicing

                   a spell:

how to disappear

from yourself,

within yourself.

I've noticed

each time I leave,

something in me keeps

                   going.

Something in me turns

its back on me—

someone else reflected in the mirror,

someone else answering

to my name.

"I've got no romance left in me." - Henry Rollins

I've got no romance left in me. I know I once had it. I have no need

for love. You might have something to say about that, you might

have a few names to call me. I'm not that desperate anymore. That's

not to say that I've slacked off in the desperation department alto-

gether, far from it. I have less time and less things in my mind to

convince me of the need to support and perpetuate a lie.

Some will tell you that they need love to live. Well shit, people will

tell you a lot of stuff, like how you owe a stranger your life to

uphold the lie he's selling this week. Weakness is painless. Like

sliding down a razor so sharp you wouldn't think to look down on

the floor and see all the blood. The other night I looked down at her

and almost forgot her name. It's just flesh. Put your tears in an enve-

lope and send them to Hitler. They mean as much to his dead ass as

they do to me.

"They left like you knew they would." - Henry Rollins

They left you like you knew they would. They went away and you

fell like a stone. All the way to the bottom of your room. I see you,

yes I see you. Sitting in your chair, hating every minute of it. Falling

like a stone without even moving. It hurt you to know that you were

right about all the shit you wanted to be wrong about. They always

leave you. You put yourself in the right place to get left.