I left her in her sadness. She was strong but such a pain.

Thought that I could love her, be shallow, and go insane.

I miss her for her beauty and the taste of just her kiss.

It gets me when I’m tired. When I’m rested I don’t miss.

Sunshine rain and highway.

I was late, oh nothing new.

They are always in a hurry.

Their impatience kinda grew…

I was reaching for a chilled one.

The kind I liked to spread around.

To ease the whining and complaining.

In those seas in which they drowned.

We were standing on the shoreline.

The line was drawn in the sand.

Like a swordsman at a gun fight.

Not much more was planned.

4 a.m. Streetcar…

I’m trying to buy a ticket at the dispenser. I hear her before I see her. That voice of despair. “You got a dollar, sir?”

It’s too fucking early for this; so I stop trying to buy the ticket in a dispenser that isn’t taking my change.

I bounce to the back of the empty train and bury my face in a book. I hear her coming.

“Did you call me a bitch?”

“I didn’t say anything to you! I don’t want to listen to you. I don’t want to talk to you.”

“You look familiar. I know your face.”

She’s not as old as she looks. It appears she has one tooth left. She has the look of defeat. I get up and move past her to the front of a streetcar. I soon exit.

I question myself for not having more compassion and acknowledging that this city chews people up…

The next bus is filled with early morning workers. It’s 4:35 a.m. No one looks happy.

Back to my book.

I was thinking, partly listening. I was nodding, but deep in past.

You were talking. I know it’s shocking. You were thinking this can’t last.

The balance is fractured broken. . There’s a movement in the air.

All that talking, and no listening. Spinning stuck in, ‘I don’t care.’

All this yammering about being happy.

I don’t believe it’s what you want.

Your addiction to your suffering.

You’re just a tease. The way you taunt.

Your voice it sounds so clear now.

Such perfection. That attitude!

I have heard of people who…

Complain about free food.

I’ve been patient with understanding…

And all things that I don’t know.

They piled up and not withstanding…

Except those marks from letting go.

We were holding onto dear life.

Confused like children in a war.

Lack the words for clear expression.

Peace and love were not in store.

There is something in the shadows.

Dare take a look? Oh, just a peek!

There’s something Holy in the answers.

When the strong protects the weak.

Dennis Mantin

I’ve been working into evenings.

Sometimes until the dawn.

I would d like to say there was a plan.

It’s not clear to where it’s gone.

I’m retiring in springtime.

No more talks of getting rich.

I’ll be riding into that sunset.

With no complaint that lifes a bitch.

My Grandfather said of his son, my father: “He behaves as if the world owes him a living.“

Neither of those men, like me, is without our flaws. However, it appears to me now that the old man might have been ahead of the curve on this one.

I see many people behaving this way now, which brings me to ask: where are they getting this idea from. It has to be either their parents or the internet? I really don’t know, but this is really a bizarre source of entertainment!