Poetry | Fred Aiken Writing

October 26, 2022

Adjust and Pivot

maybe life wouldn’t be that difficult

if i planned it out

and came prepared

and sat down to communicate my feelings with

friends and family

while adjusting to change, growth, and development

rather than cursing things i don’t understand

while locking myself in my room

and refusing to come out

because there’s loud noises constantly going off outside;

there’s nothing wrong with wanting to embrace silence

cut to the moment my fitbit registers me walking

12k steps without leaving my room

without a single step outside

October 24, 2022

Water Quickens Through the Tongue

it’s very public

well known, all over town, city, village, pueblo,

photographs snapped in haste

and left even quicker

as whispers billow through the sycamore’s cracked branches

snatching up little gossip

little tidbits,

floating sand of what never seems to be forgotten

or learned to be taken for granted

as cement paves the way, wave, whisked away like so many days

passing time spent spending little secrets

reaching through the crest of time still reeling forward

but it’s already known

and out in the world,

so please don’t fret

because we know

we get it

October 20, 2022

Directions for the Night

parabolic screams added to the ether

as notations take down worried looks at the open

door creaking closed

as another night rushes out into the dawn and streaks

across the sky to acquaint itself to a

sensory deprivation chamber located 3 miles east and keep going straight