Understand
I don’t call myself
A feminist, but
I wholeheartedly
Support everything
They have
Fought for
And all they
Believe in,
I just can’t
Tell my family
Friends, co-workers,
They would never
Understand
I am not
Like them.
Short Free Verse Poems about the Human Condition
Dinner Party
I never knew how much I loved you
Until I saw you with someone else at that
Dinner party. Exchanging superficial
Pleasantries with the social climber to
My left, forced laughs, feigned interest,
A burning focus on your glowing visage.
Meet my eyes, acknowledge I mean
Something, that I wasn’t just some whim,
A forgettable dalliance until the right one
Came along and swept me from your
Consciousness, kicking an unwanted
Pebble from a manicured path.
Tradition
Something slightly off,
Vaguely strange.
Stiff, uncomfortable
In social situations,
Overly serious, ill at ease
Interacting with others.
Conversations oddly
Reminiscent of high school.
Inflexibility, stodginess,
Tradition trumps all,
Little tolerance or interest in
Change or progress.
Good old days that
Never existed reign supreme.
Maudlin memories of
Idealized order and conformity.
Sound Carriage
During a moment of
Unadulterated optimism,
He told them about
His desire to pursue
An art career and they,
Being of upright and
Morally sound carriage,
Applied a heavy coat of
Judgment and suspicion
Onto his dreams,
Same as they always had,
Always would,
Courage and change
Not being all that
Salient to them.
Lord of the Manor
Sitting around
A lavishly decorated,
Candlelit table after enjoying
A decadently sumptuous meal,
The exquisitely rare
Dessert wine is announced
To collective glee,
The lord of the manor is
Overheard intimating that they
Must have done something right,
The servants refill the
Glasses without a word.
The Way Things Are
The seething indignation
He feels in his chest
When someone is cast
Aside by some heartless
Bully who can’t even
Care enough for himself
To feel anything for others.
People condescendingly remind him
That this is the way things are,
Cavalierly ignoring the innumerable
Examples to the contrary,
Where people of conscience
Rise above self-interest and
Care for each other.
Latent
The smallest opportunity
To lord over someone
Sends him into paroxysms
Of bliss, his true nature
Rears its grotesque head
With surprising facility.
Churning, just below the
Surface, a latent reservoir
Of domineering autocracy,
Impatient to impose its
Unrestrained dysfunction on
The next sorry victim.
Better
Sharing a quiet moment
With his family in a
Warm living room,
He reminisces wistfully
About the idyllic days of
His youth when everything
Was better and the
Complexities of the
World were non-existent.
His friends and he would
Play stick ball for hours
Until their moms called them
In for supper, carefree days
Spent enjoying the fresh air,
Roaming freely,
Incognizant of what was
Really happening just
A couple miles away.
As If Nothing Happened
He will always
Tell you exactly
What he thinks,
Regardless of whether
It is of any interest
To anyone but him,
Or destroys you at
Your very core;
He’ll just say it and
Go about his business
As if nothing happened.