Michael Aaron Casares - One Poem

Burke on the Bus

Fallen envelope.

The heavy plop of folded paper

parchment never sound

so heavy.

A rigid belly flop

on the floor.

A ripped attention

pulled from gonzo delusions

and terrible advice on early

2000s marijuana law, the length

of obsidian leg and gaunt calf 

anonymous in the bustle 

of silent respite, a public respect

of downtrodden eyes and bowed

heads, lucky if remnants of past 

civil society prompt them to look

up from their phones or self-interests

to hold a door open or look you in 

the eyes and say "thank you" or 

"excuse me," coyly places heel

tenderly, imperceptibly, cautiously

as if to claim the prize fallen 

from the seat before him

from youthful giant of pale skin,

tree trunk bicep, 'fro'd brown coif,

Khaki and purple school uniform.

In the wild-wild-West of the new 

Millennium, in the dog-eat-dog

world we've adjusted, in the 

shark tank we are born,

the young man claims as a finder

a prize to which he should not

be the keeper. As this man sits good

rereading lines of sinners who do 

nothing and bad men who do evil

and, folly, sit idle on the wall 

of perdition. 

Michael Aaron Casares is the author of poetry collections, Even in Death (2021) and The Vanishing Poet (2020), and fiction The Distance to the End (2016) and Trick of the Eyes (2018). His latest chapbook "Black Orpheus: Poems of Dreams and Dementia" can be read at Wattpad.