The Unreliable Narrator

By Peter Neil Carroll

Distant rumors of fear, a crime

attributed to the stony-faced leader

denying the doctor’s warning,

even after the doctor died.

Numbers leak through

subterranean pipelines, hearsay,

paranoids issuing warnings

the sober, the sane, the faraway

choose to overlook.

Suddenly, cancel everything,

even the funeral of one who died

of natural causes. Save your

words for another epitaph. Tell

your children not to worry

but take care.

Make spaghetti, a meal for two

leftovers, saving an errand

to the shops, and I think again

of the blizzard, New York 2016

when in the middle of great silence

my friend called out

We are safe and I could believe him.

Peter Neil Carroll’s newest collection of poetry is titled Something is Bound to Break (Main Street Rag Press, 2019).

Portside