A huge thank you to the maddest men I know: Johnny R. Olson and Michael Clay!  Thank you for publishing this piece.

https://madswirl.com/poetry/2023/05/beggars-and-barking-dogs/?fbclid=IwAR2PTSPJidt42twybiHo4Mq7bQpE8jWaSjTROEiddMDp_XcLQe2vfdWGzlU

Beggars and Barking Dogs

by Linda Imbler on May 31, 2023 

An astonishing amount of pavement,
far too large to be discreet.
A collapse of order, a rupture.
The circumstances out of which sometimes
come almost no solution
for the tightly packed forever population.

Despoiled property displaying existence as dead air.
A confusing atmosphere wherein junior despots rave,
using exaggerated motions. 

The adaptation of laws,
damning the achievements of the past,
no nostalgia prevails,
and greater time periods are wiped away.

About all that can be said about unused hearts
is that they press against the necessity for kinship,
for decency,
and are not vitally concerned with civil crises.

We need to learn not to deny
the existence of the curve that persists.
Must demand a return
to the reverence of prophets,
the conferring of salvation,
our searches for lost ships.

Reeling us back time and again,
to remain next to what
some think now lies dead.

editors note: 

Through our rises and our falls, we seek that thing to define us all. – mh clay