by J. D. Mackenzie
I don’t really know you
and we won’t likely meet
but I’ve seen you round
mostly at the check-out counter
and you seem nice enough
So I just want to tell you
you’re making a huge mistake
start walking
and don’t look back
This life you’ve chosen
is filled with perfidious people
who want to dress you up then undress you
make you over then drive you mad
chase you round in motor cars
as if it’s all a game
shoot your picture
until there’s nothing left to shoot
You’ve still got time to leave
to find someone less needy
who doesn’t want a statuary
who’s not an answer on a history test
Why not find an internist
or a nice boy from the club?
A girl like you has options
and needn’t rush these things
So keep walking, Kate
you seem nice enough
and you deserve a life of your own
J. D. Mackenzie is a 2011 Pushcart nominee for poetry whose recent work has appeared in The New Verse News, The Ekphrasis Project, Four and Twenty, and Poets for Living Waters. Now writing furiously for National Poetry Writing Month, he is fast acquiring the temperament of an obedient Golden Retriever. He lives with his family in the foothills of Oregon’s Coast Range.
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