Localized Loss

I found it.

Driving on some blind errand,

Through a place I knew was familiar.

I hadn’t been there in ages.

Most of the businesses had changed.

But not the one that helped me find the wound.

I rediscovered the loss of my best friend,

Because I found the place where he taught me

Jingoistic propaganda

Doesn’t serve me.

He disarmed my ignorance with patience,

Trying gently to get me to see

I had been lied to with a purpose.

I was being subverted.

And even though I was made of rage

And the vast sodium content of costco dinners

Somehow I could hear him.

I drove past this place,

Remembering that I will never hear him again.

That there was a lifetime of wisdom

Still hiding in his kind aspect.

That there were more stories in him

Than in the entire bookstore where I

Was told for the first time

That if a government wants you to hate someone

You should probably investigate why.

Stories lost to an impenetrable darkness.

A dark, silent lake of unshed tears,

Untold tales,

Unmade worlds,

And perfect truths.