Nearly
by Robert Sucher
Youth with its snap shots
Of fugitive intimacy
Its pornography of longing
And misapprehension
Didn’t we sleep under bridges
Didn’t we betray one another
Like starving mercenaries
The bowl was often empty
Or nearly so
We each practiced posing
As the most deserving of
The remaining scraps
We had that luxury then.
The bowl is still nearly empty.
Robert Sucher is a retired public school teacher, and former teachers’ union activist, living in Los Angeles. The proud father of a newly minted college graduate, Robert divides his time between writing, playing music, and showing up as a white racial justice ally and peace activist. His professional life began in the theater. He studied mime in Paris with Marcel Marceau and Etienne Decroux in the early seventies. He has been posting his poetry on Facebook in recent months. Robert’s father recited poetry to him from the day he was born. Poetry is where the soul reveals its secrets to itself.
