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A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."
"A Man Said to the Universe"
—Stephen Crane
Hear my problem,
Old Man!
I wear the world,
anguished by its lacking.
I write.
I write so others
might wail as well.
They don't,
I do.
That's the problem.
angry threats, bricks through bedroom windows, beatings in traffic,
gods half-hold open doors between raves and loathing,
all of them laughing.
bullets crammed in blue jeans,
muscle taunt, ink congeals over
flesh tired of indecision,
of nostalgia
as the years reach 30, 31, 32.
a .38 in the glove box,
great aunt's sheet music is held with red thread.
passenger seat the color of red wine,
a wedding band is on its edge
littering this here-and-now
dear maturity, enemy of buffoons,
it is refused by hillbillies and washed up cougars,
it's mauled open, chewed, mangled, exploited
like little girls abandoned beside circus tents.
it is not my country. it is not my dream.
it's a bitch's playground begging for a coup
between college degrees and gun-runners,
where battalions are met with amphetamines, motorcycles,
a zeal to hate the self-reliant, the librarian, the bartender.
voltaires lash out, leap up, a manifesto is written,
its fangs a wolf
to chew through false idols.
friends who share these high stakes will howl,
bake under a harvest moon; this is a blood curse.
tranquility is a dixie tramp,
the addiction, the harlot of authors.
it's bigger than a cadillac, than threats of terrorism,
than burning crosses; more vast than compassion.
this life is to see demons, to breathe lilac,
to live fully
with a heart punched by thorns.
Charles Clifford Brooks III has been published in The Dead Mule, Eclectica, Gloom Cupboard, Cerebration, Underground Voices, Alba, Deep South, The Istanbul Literary Review, Prick of the Spindle, Conversations, nibble, and Semaphore. He is currently Poetry Editor for Literary Magic Magazine. Charles Clifford's poetry has been featured on the Joe Milford Poetry Show. He believes every artist should join The Guerilla Poetics Project. His first book of poetry, Whirling Metaphysics, will be published by Leaf Garden Press.