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Thursday, February 09, 2012

THE LAST GREAT DEPRESSION (OCCUPY THIS)

by Lynnie Gobeille


They say his last conversation took place two hours before.
Seated in a comfy leather chair
 he leaned forward and told his shrink
 “life was going well.”
His kids were both in college, not Ivy League…
but good enough to impress.
His wife liked her new Audi, but was a tad upset;
was not the Beamer she had coveted.

He was, however, pleased with his medical practice…
the number of patients growing.
In fact,
or so his psychiatrist has begun to tell everyone,
You know they do this;
think eavesdropping on a conversation at a party:
“The man seemed perfectly fine to me.”

They say it must have taken great courage
to climb over the railing on the bridge.
They whisper that his last act was a mortal sin.
Wonder if he hesitated.
Debated.
Pondered.
Or simply shook his head.
Leaned forward.
arms spread wide
as he executed
one last perfect dive.


Lynnie Gobeille has  published in The Sow's Ear Review, Crone’s Nest, The Avatar, The Prairie Home Companion, This I Believe (NPR), The New Verse News, The Providence Journal (Poetic License) and The Naugatuck River Review. Editor of the Providence Journal Poetry Corner (South County Edition ), her essays can be heard on NPR public radio. She is the co-founder of The Origami Poems Project, a state wide “free poetry event” based in Rhode Island . Her “micro chapbooks” can be found on their website: www.origamipoems.com .
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