Poetry | Fred Aiken Writing

April 18, 2024

neighborly

my neighbor’s waved at me the other day,
but i felt embarrassed that it has been eight years of me living in this house
and never greeting, acknowledging, or even briefly nodding to any of my neighbors,
so at this point i just try to avoid even the slightest of glances,
but not because they’re horrible neighbors,
i assume that they’re not;
it’s mostly something going on with me, an internal struggle,
preventing me from saying ‘hello neighbor’

April 17, 2024

comic aspirations

after reading comic books all throughout my childhood,
i finally decided to pick them back up,
only to realize that i wish i had become a comic book artist,
or maybe even a comic book writer, illustrator, promoter, editor, or something,
just something to do with comic books,
and perhaps if i had,
then i could have been happy with my life,
though i might just be kidding myself

April 16, 2024

check the spell check

i try not to misspell anything while i’m writing,
even though nowadays there is spell check with those red squiggly lines
to let you know when you’ve messed up the entire story,
so then you need to go back and start all over, again and again,
ad infinitum, though i’m not sure if my spelling or grammar really matters,
you know, as long as you get the gist of what i’m saying,
and you do, don’t you?
you don’t need to answer that,
just think about it quietly until it becomes apparent