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Cynthia Ruth Lewis

CIRCULATION PROBLEM


Since you left,

it's the same thing every morning--

pins and needles without warning

arms and legs asleep;

nerves spent, extremities severed

no blood to reach them,

cold and dead.

Heart beating numbly,

pulse shaky and weak,

can't push the blood ashore,

anymore


Can't feel the weight of sleep

the heavy blanket,

dreaming deep...

and it always ends the same:

gone, as quickly as you came


Can't feel;

I'm limp and useless as a rag doll;

pose me any way you want,

I'm not real


Put me on the shelf, for safekeeping,

and memories--

dust me off if you get lonely:

you know you were the only one

who could ever make my blood sing



OUTCAST


I've never rushed out

to see a "hit" movie


I don't "do" the mall


I don't pay attention to

or participate in gossip


I listen to Beethoven

as well as Marilyn Manson


I don't rubberneck

at accident scenes


I've never read anything

on a best-seller list


I am not ruled by the dollar sign


I am childless by choice


I don't honor holidays by drinking

and getting behind the wheel


I prefer the company of books

to that of most people...


and for this I am considered

a threat to society


but since when is individualism

considered dangerous?


Just because I prefer

to avoid the masses,

and choose to put a fork

in the beaten path,

for this I am shunned

I am feared

I am dismissed


but

I enjoy being on the other side

because if being different

is deemed wrong in this fleeting world

I don't ever wanna be right


[Index]

Thunder Sandwich #26 - Summer/Fall 2005