Edward Ahern Verse-Virtual 2017 September

September 2017

I resumed writing after forty odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. I have my original wife, but after forty nine years we are both out of warranty. There've been around a hundred fifty poems and stories published so far, and three books. I work the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories on the review board and managing a posse of five review readers.

Arrested Experiences

There’s a border to experience that I have no urge to cross,
pained and severed living that I never want to know,
a suffering of friends that I hope not to feel.

They speak coded words of what’s been undergone,
of copping, and outstandings, and going away.
of throwaway jobs, or hard time, or having to be a player.

They stare to one side and speak in flat tones
of beggar’s freedom without family or belongings,
of bleak nows and worse futures and the urge to score.

I hope to never know the pain that shows
in their tattered voices and somber faces,
but venerate their ability to withstand it.

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