The guy is 6′ 7″ and covered in tattoos
he walks back and forth
all day, jobless
convenience store to home
home to convenience store
with a golden new 40 of
Schlitz Malt Liquor in his hand
And Jesus commands me to
love my neighbor
Raw, stinking garbage stacks up
in his yard
causing large, unashamed rats
to show up with suitcases
and great joy
every few months
the City comes out
fines him
makes him clean up
And Jesus commands me to
love my neighbor
His dogs possess miracle larnyxes
barking for stretches of
five to seven hours at a time
the hounds are joined by him and his girlfriend
at 1:37 am
for yelling matches that provide me with
strange dreams
and bad poems
And yet, Jesus doesn’t cut me any slack
“…love thy neighbor…”
I’m usually angry and
frustrated by these impossible words
until I walk by a
mirror
And take
a good, long look
at the self-righteousness
I carry around with me
and have carefully preserved
as a mortician does
his latest
customer
Jesus doesn’t command me
to love my neighbor
because my neighbor
is somehow lovable
He tells me to do it because
though I like to play at enlightenment
my neighbor and I
are barreling down this old fire road
at one hundred and one miles per hour
in the
same
shitty
Buick
together
Forgive me neighbor
I have not loved you
_____________________________________
Robert Bruce is one of the most read, linked, loved and reviled poets working on the web. He writes at KNIFE GUN PEN every Monday from Portland, Ore. Get more over at Twitter. If this did something to you or for you, go ahead and spread it around...
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Robert!!!
You ROCK MY SOCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love reading your Monday offerings – I am always entertained, challenged, intrigued, mystified….. but mostly challenged – you RAWK!!!!
Thanks for sharing your gift of pen and word with us!
Hope to see you in the near future!
Love to you and R!!
Beckie :)
Great stuff man. Loved it.
You say it so well.
Thank you for this.
I’m usually angry and
frustrated by these impossible words
until I walk by a
mirror
They are music. They are poetry. They are life. You gave me something to steer my soul.
beautiful words, beautiful truths…
I liked both of your comments Robert. The second one would have been less without the first.
A neighbor story?
Next door to my folks lived a local preacher to one of those weird new christian churches. He was the type of guy who never cut the grass or did anything else to keep up his house until his parishoners got around to doing it for him. After the hurricane, he was bragging to us about scamming the insurance companies because he was getting church people to do all the work for free. Some holiness there, really.
I’m doing alright, I managed to find an apartment again finally and that was the big thing that needed to get done – I was staying at my parents house for way too long.
I made out better than most people so I can’t really complain much.
positively delicious
Excellent read and extremely relevent to everyday life. It really reminds me of a guy just across the street from me and how I really should befriend him more than just the shallow wave that I throw at him every other day. If I could drop one little bit of constructive critique, Leave out the profanity as I would love to share some of your stuff with my children.
The “tongue” and the the ” ‘tude”—two very touchy triggers that all to often “go off” indiscriminately. I agree we need to be surrounded by more mirrors to evaluate ourselves before evaluating/judging others. Good read, bro.
hey wats up just thought i’d telll you that im using this poem for a poetry project @ school.
luv ya,
Madly
i also wanted to know if you have any other peoms about friendship? and i also want to see you sometime soon … like in a few days so you’d better come visit or else!
luv ya,
Madly