1376: The Life Counselor | Andrew Rihn
"The Life Counselor"
Andrew Rihn
shouts at women whose minds
are already made up.
In this parking lot, his barking
finds no empty spaces;
the time for decision making
has passed. He has no part
in that process, no scales
for the weight within these women.
The kind of guy you could see
ordering a mail-order bride
and imagine her asking for a divorce.
He is propaganda from head
to toe: thick military-style
boots, cargo pockets stuffed
with pamphlets, red vest
tied around his wide
stomach with the words
Please Talk To Me
and a picture of the cross.
His eyes see past boyfriends'
confusion, past the women's
puffy eyes. Does he look for
scruffy, unkempt fantasies
of the Old Testament?
He says he is offering
an alternative, that he knows
organizations that will
help with the cost
of raising her child.
He thinks that if the price
is right, these women
will speak with him,
whisper his name gently, say
thank you or this means
so much, and look up at him,
not with tears of anger
or fear, but of gratitude,
thinks the voices of the little
ones he saves will one day grow loud
enough to drown out the silence
of children who never call anymore,
not even on his birthday.
On this day in...
2011: No poem, weekend
2010: "Things I Haven't Felt" by Emily Lloyd
2009: "Science Fiction Story" by Chris Killen
2008: "Sometimes It Happens" by Brian Patten
Everything will be okay.//The sun will be burnt out - it will be like a black floating acorn - and it will be dark in the bar, and I won’t be able to see if you are crying.
Andrew Rihn
shouts at women whose minds
are already made up.
In this parking lot, his barking
finds no empty spaces;
the time for decision making
has passed. He has no part
in that process, no scales
for the weight within these women.
The kind of guy you could see
ordering a mail-order bride
and imagine her asking for a divorce.
He is propaganda from head
to toe: thick military-style
boots, cargo pockets stuffed
with pamphlets, red vest
tied around his wide
stomach with the words
Please Talk To Me
and a picture of the cross.
His eyes see past boyfriends'
confusion, past the women's
puffy eyes. Does he look for
scruffy, unkempt fantasies
of the Old Testament?
He says he is offering
an alternative, that he knows
organizations that will
help with the cost
of raising her child.
He thinks that if the price
is right, these women
will speak with him,
whisper his name gently, say
thank you or this means
so much, and look up at him,
not with tears of anger
or fear, but of gratitude,
thinks the voices of the little
ones he saves will one day grow loud
enough to drown out the silence
of children who never call anymore,
not even on his birthday.
On this day in...
2011: No poem, weekend
2010: "Things I Haven't Felt" by Emily Lloyd
2009: "Science Fiction Story" by Chris Killen
2008: "Sometimes It Happens" by Brian Patten
Everything will be okay.//The sun will be burnt out - it will be like a black floating acorn - and it will be dark in the bar, and I won’t be able to see if you are crying.