NaPM April 14, 2017

[nibbed]

JUST NOW got scared out of my wits.
Who needs such prompting?!



That Guy Louder Than the Ocean

Pounding on the gate
with a torch
and likely no key,

I noticed him earlier,
screwing with cycles
of turtles in Spring;

Sounding drunk,
angrily yelling
for a woman
I don't know.

My heart jumped
when things got quiet,
I stared into the dark
not able to detect
...his sneaking?

At first I thought
he was scaling the wall
up to my balcony,
like some crazed monkey
who'd rip the face off
his best friend for fun;

but it was only
his  distant flashlight
hopping and dancing,
sending shadows
as he pounded to enter
the commons.

Noises were disguised
as a clanging aluminum ladder
climbing to the place
where I think I am safe.

I'm seated now
writing this poem,
four steps short
of my steel and brass life

wondering
if he is glaring on my porch
behind the open doorwall,

or if he's home, warm,
sleeping off drunken
tortoise torturing, fruitless
sea shell promises.