want of shelter and sustenance
causes depression
homelessness
worse

what would it matter
to the modern millionaire
billionaire
rocket man
to support humans on earth
rather than trying to leave them behind
once you’ve exhausted the resources
on this
planet

often we forget the man in the street
i mean
really in the street
getting by on mcdonalds coffee and sugar
before it is time to leave
shelter
restroom
water
unpoisoned

we all
you and me
say things
like
he could get a job
she should apply herself
if they just worked
but
you
my dear
unenlightened friend
must be free of any visible scars
or years of famine
failure
loss

i want warm bookstores
with free coffee
and a one-penny section
full of out-of-copyright poets
and classics being reprinted
for less than the cost of the paper

this is not an everyman library
and i am not a poet
today
i am sad
adrift

what do you know about helpless
catastrophic thinking
ideation of the deadly kind

are you experienced

perspective is important here
a high school friend i don’t like much
was amazed to hear my life
contained so many losses
both his parents were still living
all of his siblings
and
he wanted to make a movie
out of my story
said he was a writer now

what are you writing
i asked

the fascination was coming for him
as his mom was on the decline
at 61
lovely to still enjoy the company
of your fragile
and smiling
mom

loss informs our empathy
and how we
don’t fall apart
each moment
in this mixed-up moment
of wars again
of intelligence architected by numbers and letters
randomly jiggled
into new combinations of letters
the meaning is within you
make sense of this life
what you
will spend your amazing life working toward
or this moment
reading a poem
*thank you*

*i am here* < index page

© 2024 – a walt whitman ai poem by human john mcelhenney