Loved Then: Loved Now: Last at Bat

Last at Bat

I remembered the right thing
then I didn’t do it
because I was hungry or lazy
my selfish self sucked in the day
as though I owned it
as though the sun rose for me alone

next door the dog lounged on the porch
licked his own balls
just because he could

two doors away
the mailman approached

from Low Centre of Gravity by Michael Dennis (Anvil Press, 2020)

Some poems bear rereading. It’s a perilous balance, self-blame and accepting human nature and being caught in its molasses.

Michael had a way of saying the complex plainly and comically.