Patient

A Poetic Response to "Sound of the Hollyhocks" by Hugh Garner

I can hear the doors
Their creaks are tales older than the trees they're made from
The wind doesn't whisper, it shouts,
Carrying the conversations of strangers lifetimes away
But footsteps are the worst
Telling fabricated stories of lands never reached
Just enough to make me discontent with where I am.

I am my diagnosis
A number on a chart
A pinpoint on a graph
So they can understand why they can't
I'm crazy delusional mentally impaired
Never been the same since that one day
But the doors they tell me otherwise
And I listen to the doors, not the doctors
The doors are louder.

How to Decide

A Poetic Response to "Gentlemen Your Verdict" by Michael Bruce

the value of life

is not determined until

it is all over 

sometimes its greater 

to make the wrong decision

than make none at all

what is bravery

but taking the harder path

as all the rest end

it's more heroic

to live with murder and guilt

than to die with it