WHAT FRIENDS SOUND LIKE
for Chris
I have no idea how he thinks he sounds
because I've never even looked in his eyes
but when he confessed a question the other day
how can God love me when I can't even keep
from doing bad I immediately thought okay this guy's
a blues singer which made me giggle because
he loves heavy metal almost as much as his church
but when he casually brought up the fact that
we were currently flying on a giant rock through space
in a mostly empty otherwise lifeless universe not really
making sense I said holy everything this guy's a poet too
and so we were in it like we almost always are
because neither of us particularly cares for trivialities
because like me he also understands or is always
calculating that distance as we talk so then he suddenly
drops a parable of how he once drank so much and the
music got so loud he woke up passed out in a field somewhere
only to reflect on how far from that moment he'd come especially
because of the whole hurling on a giant rock through space thing
which felt like him letting me borrow his strength like an older brother
might do with a cool shirt he'd just worn yesterday anyway
I don't remember my response to wherever we were
in that particular part of that particular conversation but
when he let himself go full preacher mode in what I imagined
as a whisper and told me he thought there are too many people
thinking they are the found sheep when we're all lost
because this world was actually designed to pull us
away from light well okay I made up that last part
but my point is if your eyes and ears work well enough
in a weird way everyone is everyone and you yes you too
 |
| Peter Schwartz |
Peter Schwartz has had poetry featured in
Pank, The Columbia Review, Diagram, and many other cool places. He is the author of the poetry collection
Old Men, Girls and Monsters, as well as four other chapbooks. You can check out his art any time you want to at:
the-art-of-peter-schwartz.jimdosite.com.
