the nature of the enemy, by Herman Shorts | poems, essays, and short stories in Poeticous

Herman Shorts

Herman Shorts

the nature of the enemy

if i stub

my fucking toe

it’s their fault

so say i, and who

could argue? you almost

certainly don’t even know

they exist, you poor sap

so your opinion

may as well be

some drool

on a retard’s chin.

not my job

to wipe up.

(2014)

Other works by Herman Shorts...

trying too hard

was all stupid. you weren’t that entertaining. i find it all only sad now, that

america thinks i'm dead

like bell bottoms or disco but we need it to think i’m dead

(being) the favorite thing

this being we are, delights in all things, yes but is held breathless

being drawn back unlike a bowstring but down and in as water finds the lowest

the very idea that i could be

chronic, yet pressing issue affecting development, function

unspeakable dearth of nutrient the cause of the complaint, lack of the sweet titmilk of human connection,

that's what she said

man, it’s hard to come down from impossible hopes seemingly

you are guilty of failing to love and understand me, like a dog is guilty of failing to speak or use

5

why is nothing i can do now. where it went. what that echo means, if anything

when (finally) we meet

when (finally) we meet I’m thinking spring wildflowers will bloom on high

1

2

webwomb’s not the maker of me. came into it as falling is done. down, only always

we are nearly always a world which almost

just listen the trees drink silly.. I work i work that day the not

god is unwelcome in suburbia, the cells are too comfortable there, & love rests best under stars.

is there, then, a vortex?

shall we turn down the covers, crawl inside? find there a place that’s been waiting for us, a vortex of sorts

1