04-04-2020, 11:11 PM
Midlife Crisis
It’s a sort of leprosy,
a numbness of soul.
Everyone thinks it’s a red car,
or a mistress, but those are pinpricks
to test for feeling. Props that do not explain
why you find yourself alone
in front of the open refrigerator door, when
you aren’t even hungry, haven’t been
hungry in years. The light stares back,
a faint chill breathes
against your skin unnoticed.
~~
Inspired by The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot:
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
It’s a sort of leprosy,
a numbness of soul.
Everyone thinks it’s a red car,
or a mistress, but those are pinpricks
to test for feeling. Props that do not explain
why you find yourself alone
in front of the open refrigerator door, when
you aren’t even hungry, haven’t been
hungry in years. The light stares back,
a faint chill breathes
against your skin unnoticed.
~~
Inspired by The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot:
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
The secret of poetry is cruelty.--Jon Anderson