The life meant for you
undelivered
in yellowed envelope
addressed to the home you left
when you were nineteen.
Inside
the girl with the crooked nose
with love for you strong as her arms
that would never let you go,
a career at the small college by the ocean,
and the limping cocker spaniel
you would have adopted
after finding her abandoned on the beach.
No forwarding address.
Your life lies on a dusty shelf
in a warehouse outside Washington DC.
Soon it will be pulped with the others
and turned into newsprint.
Neighbors with wooden hearts
and silicon brains pray to their mannequin gods.
You cannot
leave a room without a vague sense
you’ve left something behind.
Jon Wesick is the host of San Diego’s Gelato Poetry Series and editor of the San Diego Poetry Annual. He has published over three hundred poems in journals such as the Atlanta Review, Pearl, and Slipstream. He has also published over seventy short stories. He has a Ph.D. in physics and is a longtime student of Buddhism and the martial arts. One of his poems won second place in the 2007 African American Writers and Artists contest. Another had a link on the Car Talk website.
Categories: Poetry
Tags: Dead Letter Office, e-zine, ezine, hyperbole, Jon Wesick, longing, melancholy, melancholy hyperbole, poem, poet, poetry, poets, submit, writing
Melancholy Hyperbole 
Beautiful.
Outstanding poem, Jon.
Excellent read – thank you for sharing this!