back to zero
By John Sweet

 

dawn/no dawn & hands held
out at the edge of town

empty but not broken

grey light kissing yr sister’s eyes
and that these are only human wars

that we are only lovers

cold rooms on the shadowed
sides of silent buildings

the dust of factories

thought it was february
because i felt no pain

thought it was spring when the
hands of forgotten children
began reaching up out of the mud

the trick of course is to not
despair in the face of
your own death

the hope is to strip away every
emotion until all that
you’re left with is truth

.

 

nothing from nothing

 

because light brings shadow

because all motion dissolves

listen

it’s not that i don’t love you

it’s not because the
streets are thick with ghosts

people were dying in the
name of freedom long before
any of this ever mattered

 

John Sweet is from the rural wastelands of upstate NY. He is a firm believer in writing as catharsis, and in compassionate nihilism. His poetry collections include A Flag on Fire is a song of hope, 2019 Scars Publications, and A dead man either way, 2020 Kung Fu Treachery Press.