Poetry | Fred Aiken Writing

October 27, 2022

Possible Regret and Forgery

i want to influence the world by

selling dreams that never come true,

or let loose the detumescence lingering in the background,

ready, willing, and able to tag in and make the world

all the more abstinent with regret of not asking

out our 4th grade crush

while realizing that would be our life,

a series of failed romances written in the back of text books,

mixed in with forgotten pieces of gum shoved there

to gross and amaze the next students of life, liberty, or frickin’ happiness,

am’i’right…

just please don’t tell my mom i skipped class

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