poem

 Two Men

One man withdrew from life

Falling ever deeper into 

An alternative reality entirely

Of his own making

He never left his desk, the 

Responsibilities of creation 

Being so onerous;

What no one else could see

For him was most robust 

Another man turned outward

Away from his own roiling

Inconsequentiality and embraced 

The entirety of the known physical world 

Made friends and lovers

Used and discarded objects

Touched everything he could get his hands on

But never came home to his now empty house

He had become no one

Except for what remained 

Of the world without him 

Both men were extremely unhappy

One committed suicide

After finishing the final chapter

Of his life’s work 

The other fathered dozens of children

And ultimately died in the arms of the wrong woman

The grandchildren are all that’s left of us 

Living off the royalties from the sales

Of the first man’s masterpiece .

4/14/24