Byline: Steve Anwyll

March 2nd, 2021

 

I step off but don’t move. The bus pulls away

in a roar. I remove my mask. The air I breathe

feels like bliss. I stand on the muddy sidewalk

looking up at the sky. If I were a man of faith

now would be the time to start speaking in tongues.

 

April 23rd, 2021

 

Stripped of my jeans and T-shirt I lie back on a

bed that’s only a mattress as I stare at the

ceiling letting my skin catch a chill. No matter

what the hands of the clock have to say it’s

the right time to give up. Sunlight makes

patterns on the wall as I fall asleep.

 

—Steve Anwyll

 

 

The Great Wall

 

If you did something with your life,

it would make you one of those people.

So you stay true to yourself: honest

and un-judged, keeping the doubters

and self-doubts at bay. You shouldn’t

have to be subjected to the scrutiny

of the unworthy: you’re better than that;

you exist in a more rarefied sphere.

No one else can enter there.

 

—John Tottenham