Poetry by Hugh Blanton
Maybe I didn’t give life what it wanted.
All of those things I was supposed to do –
get married – have children –
get a mortgaged house –
vote –
I refused to do and now
life wants payback.
Maybe if I’d worked overtime –
maybe if I’d given up my day off –
maybe if I’d pursued a career
instead of keeping a job –
I wouldn’t be in this mess.
Poverty is the punishment for
my fecklessness.
Life tried to teach me a lesson –
I took it as a challenge to refuse to learn.
It was all set up for me to participate –
schools – churches – Kiwanis Clubs –
but my Emily Dickinson-like
passion for solitude kept me from it all.
That – and my love of bottom shelf whiskey.
Like a cat with a mouse –
life drops me at the doorstep of its master.
Hugh Blanton grew up in the hills of Eastern Kentucky and now lives in San Diego. His work appears in The American Journal of Poetry, The Scarlet Leaf Review, As It Ought To Be and others. His book A Home to Crouch In was released in April (Cajun Mutt Press).
