A Lot of Despair

[David Nelson Bradsher]

A Lot of Despair

Inside a U-Haul, furniture and clothes
stack like assorted toys in clearance bins.
I half expect to spy the Barbie twins
harbored in piles of guns and GI Joes.

But nothing of the kind is in the truck;
Only the collective mass of wasted years.
You start the engine, gun it, grind the gears,
and scream at me, “You never gave a fuck!”

I have no answer. I’m exhausted, hot,
And, in my dizzying confusion, lost.
I vanish in a haze of gray exhaust.
The ghost of silence haunts this parking lot.

[ramadevi]

Apt title. The poem proves it.
Hope it is fictional, David, though it sounds so raw and real.
Brilliant allusion to barbies and Gi Joes-- the ideal doll couple with no emotional traumas between them.

---hinting, subtly, at the differences that make clear communication almost impossible between the grown up boys and girls who do not know how to play fairly together.


I have no answer. - very powerful statement.

I think this is a polished work.
No nits,

Warmly,
rd

[mfwilkie]

I keep reading the last line and wonder if you might say:

a ghosted silence haunts this parking lot.