The Count Is Now 2 and Whatever
for Bob Petric
2 being the number
of people whose feelings I hurt
I mean the last thing I did
I mean the last thing I did to them
was I hurt their feelings
and I have the text messages to prove it
it feels like I am Peter
— deny deny deny — like that
and it feels like if I were Jesus
and my friends denied me
well if I were Jesus I would know
that cowardice is how
Peter survived the day and if I were
Jesus I would think my friend Peter
should survive the day and if denying
me was what did it then ok deny
I told my daughter to do that to blame
me to say my mom is such a bitch
I have to go home
she won’t like me drinking
and then I taught her to pass the joint to the next person
if that’s what she wanted
she had my blessing
my parental blessing and I am no Jesus
she had my blessing to kick me in the head
metaphorically
if she had to and I let her know ahead of time
so she didn’t have to pause
I said blame me say what a bitch say that
and I heard her do it once
so proud
and so if my friends are denying me that’s fine
so I think if I am hurting
my friends like that I think
they would forgive me
like Jesus and if they wouldn’t
then we hurt each other and that is how
they left the world in pain and me too
I’m in pain too
they are gone and I hurt them.
Louise Robertson serves as the marketing director for Writers’ Block Poetry Night in Columbus, OH. She counts among her many publications, awards, and honors a jar of homemade pickles she received for running a workshop as well as a 2018 Pushcart nomination (Open: A Journal of Arts and Letters) and a 2018 Best of the Net nomination (Flypaper).
The Mantle 