shuffling
one of the cool things
about being alive
is slowly learning
the little dance
you know how to do
first at parties in college
and then at weddings
and then much later
in the open space
of a hallway
or a living room
when there is nothing
and you have nothing to say
and everything is very heavy
but still this small dance
not more than a wiggle
offered as a middle finger
to the world
gravel
what if I called everyone dude
and meant it
in the purest sense of the word
without gender or exaggeration
just the gentle resonance of compassion
and a sense of communion
a sense of drinking from the same bottle
and making room on the bus
a sense of that polite handwave in traffic
when you let someone into a lane
a sense that someday this will all end
but today the warm air of early evening
sitting in ripped jeans on a skateboard
in a parking lot nowhere
and feeling the moment
someone else lands a move
weeknight
and a good day is just
making someone you love laugh
or not even laugh but smile
or not even smile
but purse their lips slightly
and acknowledge the effort
the fact that you tried
and it was maybe
a little amusing
or not even amusing
but still appreciated
or not even
someone you love
***
James Lindley is a human person writing things on the Internet. He is currently working on a sequel to Beowulf – it’s about a guy that has a tough time doing the dishes but ugh he gets around to them eventually. You can see his recent work on Twitter at DuendeonFuego (@duendeenf) and in Whiptail: A Journal of the Single-Line Poem.
***
image: Syreeta Muir would love some fries with this shake. She has been Pushcart nominated by Versification and The Disappointed Housewife. Words in The Daily Drunk Mag, A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Misery Tourism, and The Bear Creek Gazette. A gallery of her photography is in Barren Magazine. Some of her Art and words are also coming up in The Viridian Door. She Twitters and Instagrams as @hungryghostpoet. Is almost definitely not a cannibal.
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