WEN: 814FA9
Exhibitor Name: Lisa Roberts
Division: Poetry (Adults)
Class: 01 Poetry
What Might Have Been by Lisa J. Roberts
He was nails on a chalk board,
screeching out injustices, feigned
and true. Like an injured falcon, screaming at the world, he announced his pain.
Abusive parents, failed marriage,
drug abuse to dull a sharp, sharp
existence. College started, and
dumped, and, oh, the unfairness
of it all.
He would accuse God,
if he believed, ironically unaware
that his sense of injustice was
perfect proof of God’s existence,
for who demands equity from the unfeeling universe?
A woman entered his life, late,
then slipped away, unable to chink his holes. Children from his failure tried to fulfill their duties as he aged and fell apart, but there was always something else needing attention. In autumn, in the hospice alone, he tore at the tubes, kicking and screaming as he always did. A nurse and orderly easily held him down; she murmuring nonsense to sooth him. Then he died.
The bereft rain mourned what might have been.
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter