poem

 Sunset People

Sometimes I’m more of a sunset guy

Beach gatherings in the gloaming

Half buzzed, surrounded by friends 

Sipping ales and watching 

A clutch of clowns on stilts

Unicyclists in top hats and tuxedo tails

Sword swallowers performing 

In the middle of a drum circle 

Everyone vaguely satisfied

Swaying to a shared beat 

Distant horizon sails

At the end of the world

Commemorating the death

Of another half-lived day 

Other times I prefer the sunrise

Which is best received alone

Please respect my privacy 

Get the fuck out 

What I say when I blow

The embers of god back to life

Is none of your damn business.

Sunrise people tell sunset people:

It’s all phony nostalgia

You’re just drunk 

One day closer to the end

Is nothing to celebrate

You’re confusing the end of all this

With the beginning of raucous night 

Sunset people tell sunrise people:

Drink some damn coffee

Or just go back to sleep

The essence of man is melancholy 

Not an eager hopefulness 

Tomorrow is never better

Than what we had yesterday

Tragedy and comedy.

All this rising and setting   

Some can’t choose

Between one or the other 

So they sleep in and stay at the office late 

For them, what’s coming up only

Makes sense on the way down 

So I usually head north

To the land of perpetual darkness

Where the sun never rises, the sun never sets

The sun never rises, the sun never sets

It’s solace enough to know 

The light is thousands of miles away,

All at once 

2/20/24