Ryan Hardgrove- Two Poems

The arrow has never been straight

always walking the straight

can be disorienting

the universe is not straight

in fact

its chaotic

but ordered

somehow

I should be paying bills

and coddling this already innate

sense of love

which done constantly and consistently

seems redundant

so I’ll get high

while the birds weep

away the darkness

and as my keyboard

clid-cladders more

words into oblivion

I’ll not stray

too far

only a few

more steps

Rock Solid Concrete

these alleys

as a child

are all dark

and terror

then we grow

and the alleys

become havens

for advantageous types

fiends and hustlers

all friends of the gutter

or even those who wish

to visit near the darkness

intermittently

while the light

sleeps

sliding along walls

dragging asphalt

shadows

wandering the concrete frontier

long hours spent

floating

confident nights

wasted in youth

spent socializing

with phantoms

spilling sloppy conversations

you won’t remember with

fellow debauchers

forking in all the juicy

bullshit

and then we grow

older still

we grow slowly

the slowness sobers us

and again

the dark alley’s strike fear

in us

this time

not for fear of the unknown

but because

the shadows

no longer harbor

secrets

the hard edges of life

have been unveiled

and the reality

is terrifyingly solid

death hunts

those who no longer

dream

Ryan Hardgrove is writing tonight while the milipedes scuttle over his bare feet. You can read more of his writing on his facebook page of the same name.  He does not have his own website because he is equally poor and lazy.