Best Part’s Never Being Caught

Ever been reading and realized
This was not written for a reader
Like you, wasn’t intended for you,

Was never written with you in mind?
Odds are, most of what you’ve read’s like that,
Which is something to be aware of—

The composers of those sentences
Weren’t necessarily excluding
You or the likes of you, but they wrote

With some blurry readership in mind,
And the imagination is weak,
Even of writers who pride themselves

On their florid gifts for fantasy.
All your life as a reader you’ve been
Eavesdropping on some narrow bandwidths,

And you may have never realized it
Except in those jolting instances
When the text makes it clear you’re not there.

A Pleasant Afternoon

Quiet sun, heat,
Towering clouds—
The war’s not here,
Not yet, not now.

But it’s out there,
The human war
Against humans,
Collateral

Damage the world,
Soon enough now—
Quiet heat, sun,
Towering clouds.