The Unreliable Narrator
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).
https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/something-is-bound-to-break-peter-neil-carroll/