Poetry by Mark Danowsky

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Take Two Aspirin &
 
That's where this all began 
 
Sidestepping 
 
They call it a Band-Aid
 
Call it medically-assisted 
 
Or call it scheduled
 
Call it illicit
 
Call it hands up
 
Call it a bullet 
                             in the brain
 
& yet, good people 
 
Know to turn here when 
                                most in need 
 
Thoughts & prayers 
 
Never solved severe 
                               acute pain
 
Never once 
 




Always Take The Meeting 
 
I don't 
 
I delete the message 
 
I pretend I never saw what I saw
 
Don't get here 
 
White knuckling one day at a time 
 
You can't keep on keeping on
 
I began to dissociate 
 
"Shutdown Mode" before I realized
 
You can't keep on keeping on 
 
Call half a lifetime sunk cost 
 
What's next might be temporary
 
Invest in yourself 
 
They invest in you too often too late 
 
You can't keep on keeping on 
 
Be the brazen chameleon
 
Change right in front of the crowd 




Mark Danowsky is Editor-in-Chief of ONE ART: a journal of poetry and Senior Editor for Schuylkill Valley Journal. He is author of the poetry collection As Falls Trees (NightBallet Press). His work has appeared in Bird Watcher’s Digest, Cleaver Magazine, Gargoyle, The Healing Muse, and elsewhere. 
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