Armed with only a diploma, empty pockets, and a dog,
I leave college and my parents for an economic drought.
I drained my money and perception in a beer-induced fog,
without a woman or a job, without housing—just without.
Neither married nor ordained and now too old to be a child,
between animal and angel, I adventure through the wild.
I keep hoping that a healer spirit guides me through the
murk
of self-pity and entitlement and middle-class malaise,
through the internet fantasias where the Facebook phantoms
lurk,
through my English-major dreams and theories fading into
haze.
Neither married nor ordained and now too old to be a child,
between animal and angel, I adventure through the wild.
I suffer synesthesia
in the sensory barrage
of a world with amnesia,
chasing each perfumed mirage,
each sweet girl I could seduce,
but all the girls I’ve wanted
run away, so I deduce
they’re surely demon-haunted.
Neither married nor ordained and now too old to be a child,
between animal and angel, I adventure through the wild.
The Departure of Tobias by Giovanni Antonio Guardi
The Departure of Tobias by Giovanni Antonio Guardi
