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Best Poems From
LAURENCE OVERMIRE
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305.
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One in a Million
I make it my lifes work
To feel
I make it hard to live
In denial
But sometimes the pain is more
Than this slight mortality can bear
Sometimes I dont want
To feel
I dont want to know
Sometimes I only want to close
My eyes and sleep
But then
Id only wake up again
The world that much worse
For my having turned away.
(Previously published in The Breath E-Zine, Sept.2003)
Laurence Overmire
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306.
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One September Morning
Suddenly
Life wasnt trivial anymore
People began to mean what they say
In dark subways, on dirty street corners
Strangers clasped hands
Day and night, black or white
The middle match of gray
Made safe in the blaze of truth:
The dollar dropping through the market
Numbers just ash, confetti to the wind
The smile at last come current with the sigh
The hug of a stranger more tender than gold.
Parents found their children in the rubble
And children afraid, were reassured
Death, always mysterious
Took his time and place at the table
The napkin folded neatly in his lap
But we, with hands enjoined
In prayer, this breath
Give our need to one another
The taste of bread and water enough
To keep this dream
Alive.
(First electronically published in This Hard Wind, by EWGPresents, Oct 2002; The Other Voices International Project, Apr 2006)
Laurence Overmire
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307.
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One Without the Other
Life
when viewed through the prism of Death
Appears
in all its splendor.
(Previously published in Westward Quarterly, Spring 2000, Vol.2, Issue 1; Irish Stew, Summer 2007, Vol.4, No.2)
Laurence Overmire
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308.
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Opening
I saw her for the first time
Thirty-five years after we were married
But by then it was too late.
(Previously published in Office Number One, Issue 25, Dec.1999)
Laurence Overmire
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