Erik Campbell

ANNIVERSARY

for Alex Dimitrov

I was crying in front of the Quick Trip because I was out of cigarettes and left my wallet at home and it was my anniversary and so it was New Year’s Eve, and already too much had gone wrong for me too often to feel conspicuous about it, crying, I mean, since it is the end of articulate speech and why one leaves most crying men alone. I didn’t look up from my hands for almost an hour, and when I did, my eyes two fish-eyed lenses, I saw the blurred moon and another man crying, filling up his car, looking at me. “I’m crying because you are,” he whispered loudly over. “I’m also crying because maybe it means one of us must stop soon.” —from Rattle #47, Spring 2015

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Erik Campbell: “I read and write poetry to remind myself that I have a soul that needs a periodic tune-up.” (web)

Related* “What I Mean When I Use the Term, ‘Witch Doctor Sad'” by Erik Campbell * “The Man Kissed the Letter” by Erik Campbell * “On War, Both Foreign and Domestic” by Erik Campbell