Poetry

Reuters photo

By

Gary Glauber

At Charlie’s Place

It is oddly apt that this man

who has made a career

in egocentric bullying,

mongering fear and

capitalizing continually upon it

is meeting this other man,

feared and revered

in his autocratic insanity

and bad haircut,

in this place where an

unreasonable fear forced

so many to wage war

for so long, for so murky reasons,

because fear dictated division

between the unquestioning patriotic

and those seeking asylum elsewhere.

Let the winds of the past

blow through them hard,

so that perhaps the lessons

bought by the senseless millions

slaughtered by uncomprehending fear

and a desire for self-preservation

amidst decades of bloody confusion

can electrify their souls into

a new age’s understanding

that past can be prologue

if we open our eyes and let

hearts and minds dictate

behaviors beyond this shallow ploy

for headlines and/or future prizes.

Gary Glauber

Gary Glauber is a poet, fiction writer, teacher, and former music journalist. His works have received multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. He champions the underdog to the melodic rhythms of obscure power pop. His collection, Small Consolations (Aldrich Press) is available through Amazon, as is a chapbook, Memory Marries Desire (Finishing Line Press). His newest collection, Worth the Candle, is now out from Five Oaks Press.