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[the lives of neighbors]

Updated: 2 days ago

by Kurt Edward Milberger


Editor's Note: Due to the formatting of this poem, it is best enjoyed on desktop.

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Time has mottled it

distance seeped

pixels into an image

both more clear

and confusing

for its

being incomplete

the hallway we shared

the wall


[after you left

the thunks,

the moans,

the laughing of the new

girl getting fucked]


but you

never distracted my silence

with your moans

or had much of anything

to say


tall,

long dirty blond hair,

scruffy

four-day old beard

jeans with tears

baggy shirts—

too baggy—

hooded sweatshirts


probably we could

have been friends—


cases of PBR


probably we liked

the same bands—


The Misfits,

Suicidal Tendencies,

Megadeth,


probably we played

the same video games


certainly we both

ended up storing our lives

in the tall brick house

where once they stored ice


mine full of cat hair

unread books


reruns of Star Trek


yours behind the door

opaque until it spilled out

into the hallway—


your blood

made into first responders’

footsteps


came home late

with my bike


cherries 

ambulance

police cars

flashing lights


—Something terrible has happened, hasn’t it?


—Yeah, something terrible has happened.


bring the bike upstairs

avoid the bloody

steps


smeared

through the hallway

leading up to your door


they say you

used a shotgun


the bathtub

from which I heard them

pull your chunky body,


covered in gore and gristle


they could

have told me 

you preferred eggs for breakfast


grape jelly on your toast


  I would have known more

               about your life


all the time

we shared

in that building—


I learned later you were studying architecture

at the university—


I hoped you

wouldn’t stop


wouldn’t slow

me down


those days

we told each other


Hey


in the halls


those few times


we said

Hi 



 


Kurt Edward Milberger writes and lives in Georgia with his family and a goldfish called Sarah. His work has appeared in Litmora and is forthcoming in Moss Puppy Magazine. He is on twitter @kurtmilb.

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