G Emil Reutter

 The Politician

He walked the floor of the pharmacy drinking from a cheap can of beer red faced his freckled bald head glowed in the harsh light, his mouth kept moving under his matted mustache exposing his butter colored teeth. Finger nails caked with dirt, layers of crud on jeans and uniform shirt, he stalked ladies shopping, slide up next to them with a wide dirty smile, as they walked quickly away. Ignored, he simply spoke to himself loudly as he took swigs from the dented can. Words slurred across the pharmacy, “Our guy didn’t loose he simply came in second,” as if anyone cared or knew what he was talking about. In his world he was holding court and just as quickly he left, stumbled across the parking lot to the bus stop where he began again, as people moved away from him. He boarded the bus traveled to his room, where he lived alone continuing his conversation with himself in the darkened room of loneliness that his life had become.

 Meds

I suppose it is good the medication kicked in

for you, though your eyes are dead, face

drawn, even you hair appears depressed.

I suppose I am glad you are happy now. I

suppose you are glad you are happy now

but all I see are the dead button eyes of a

doll’s head washed up along a creek bed.

 

Trust of Trees

I watch your clenched hands as you stand in dim light, look 

out the front window at giant sycamores, see them bend in

gusts of wind. You open your hands place them on

the rattling window panes, they do not calm. As wind tunnels

through the alley way you hear a noise, rush to the rear room

look out at the neighbors yard where Magnolia, Dogwood

Maple do the Saint Vitus dance, spastic branches finger the roof.

Aluminum capping pulled away slams into the brick, but you

you watch the trees, dance, bend, rise and fall. You do not trust trees.Winds become silent, yard full of broken branches, leaves and

debris. After two days you fall asleep, hands unclenched.

G Emil Reutter lives and writes in the Fox Chase neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pa. where he founded The Fox Chase Review and Reading Series. His website is www.gemilreutter-author.com