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tepid applause
Doug Van Hooser

I’m the photo out of place on the mantle.
No longer drowning in the hormone charge of youth
when coins of emotion tumble
from life’s shot machine. The middle age moat deepens
and widens. Now events clatter
against each other, and meaning meanders in a dialect
I barely speak. Every day should
be apple pie, not anguish cake. Most things die
from the inside out but rot from
the edges in. My smile does not embellish happiness.
The lips whisper nothing
that can be heard. The eyes neither pierce nor reflect.
Acceptance is the way it is.
Content with a pat on the back, events a perfunctory kiss.

—
Doug Van Hooser’s poetry has appeared in Roanoke Review, The Courtship of Winds, After Hours, Sheila-Na-Gig online, and Poetry Quarterly among other publications. His fiction can be found in Red Earth Review, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Bending Genres Journal. Doug’s plays have received readings at Chicago Dramatist Theatre and Three Cat Productions.

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Have you read these poems:
Putting the Day on Hold by K. A. McGowan
A Song Shall Rise by Sandy McPherson Carrubba Geary

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