Poetry

Rodney Dunning photo

By

Howard Brown

Why This Angst, Santayana?

When the last statue has been toppled;

public places stripped of the names of

all those we now hold in disrepute; the

inconvenient chapters torn from the history

books; the graven images blasted from the

face of Stone Mountain; the last vestiges of

any and everything which offends us

totally obliterated; and the dust finally

begins to settle, what will we do?

Perhaps, after a time of reflection,

we’ll find ourselves asking: Why this

angst, Santayana, this growing trepidation

within our hearts?

Howard Brown

Howard Brown is a poet and writer who lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Lookout Mountain. His poetry has appeared in Burningword Literary Journal, Poetry Super Highway, Old Hickory Review, Lone Stars Magazine and Blue Collar Review. In 2012, he published a collection of poems entitled “The Gossamer Nature of Random Things.” His poem “Pariah” placed first in the poetry division of the 2015 William Faulkner Literary Competition sponsored by Mississippi’s Tallahatchie Riverfest. He has published short fiction in Louisiana Literature, F**k Fiction, Crack the Spine, Pulpwood Fiction, Extract(s), Gloom Cupboard and Full Of Crow.