Poetry by Danny Shot

             ​Fernando Peralta Cruz CC




Languish, or 3 moods in 3 hours

1.
Sometimes you don’t want to go out
What’s there to do, really?
There are only two roads out of town
and your feet know them by heart.
You’ve visited the stores on the Avenue 
repeatedly and worry the help will think 
you have no life, which is true but you prefer 
they not come to that conclusion yet.
Your car is tired of driving to the same places: 
the supermarket, Home Depot, your sister’s group home.
The dogs on the street don’t acknowledge your existence
the geese and goslings are not scared of you
and neither is that gang of boys riding 
chopped bikes past without notice.
Almost all relationships have become long distance
affairs, and we know what happens to them.
You gaze at everyone and everything 
and are somewhat amazed that gaze 
has become a dirty word.

2.
Funerals are not that important
You’ve curated your funeral the past 30 years 
down to the set list, the guest list, 
and who gets to read a poem. 
What’s important is the sense of loss 
felt by those you’ve left behind.
You’re a romantic at heart passing your hours 
with what if’s, should’ves and why nots.
You have finally come to understand
nobody’s as happy as they are on Facebook
nobody’s as angry as they are on Twitter
nobody’s as beautiful as they are on Instagram
Everyone’s as desperate as they seem…

3.
You don’t ask for much
a walk through Central Park on a sunny day
sharing a bottle of wine with friends at an outdoor cafe
Jacob deGrom throwing strikes against the Braves
orchestra seats for a new Tom Stoppard play
new pathways of thought as you continue to age
no more envy of Instagram poets’ accolades
fresh declarations of love graffitied on the Palisades
this God Damn imposter syndrome to fade away.
Recognizing the bewildered smile on a lost friend’s face.

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Danny Shot’s WORKS (New and Selected Poems) was published in March 2018 by (CavanKerry Press). Danny is currently an Associate Editor of A Gathering of the Tribes (https://www.tribes.org/) online He was featured on the television show State of the Arts, NJ in July 2018. Danny lives in Hoboken, NJ (home of Frank Sinatra and baseball) where he is poet-in-residence of the Hoboken Historical Museum. Danny Shot was longtime publisher and editor of Long Shot arts and literary magazine, which he founded along with Eliot Katz in 1982 in New Brunswick, NJ. Check out his new website: https://dannyshot.com/

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