NOISE
has nowhere to go
but inside us.
Like a bad cough,
we can’t shake it.
We look for peace,
a crimson and yellow
daylily, each blossom
lasting less
than a day.
When we find one,
the noise fades,
briefly–
color fills us.
LODGER
Greed shows up with a suitcase
and says “I won’t be any bother.
I can sleep anywhere.”
Such a quiet man, at first
I barely realize he’s in
my own house. A week,
a month, two months,
his steps grow louder.
He gets on my nerves—
yet I don’t ask him to leave.
He knows I won’t.
I fix him good dinners,
take orders,
don’t ask questions.
Kenneth Pobo has a new book forthcoming from Assure Press called Uneven Steven. His chapbook, Your Place Or Mine, was published in June 2020 by the State Poetry Society of Alabama. His work has appeared in: Hawaii Review, Atlanta Review, Nimrod, Mudfish, Philadelphia Stories, and elsewhere.
