MMDCCXIII 1/2
The cruelty of ages past affects us now
Whoever it was who lived here lived a mean life
Each door has locks designed for keys unknown
Our living room was once somebody’s home
Our bedroom, someone’s only room
Our kitchen had a hasp upon its door.
Door to a kitchen?
And our lives are hasped and boundaried
Because of ancient locks and madnesses
Of slumlord greed and desperate privacies
Which one is madness? Depends on who you are.
We find we cannot stay, the both of us, in the same room
Dance, like electrons, out of each other’s way.
The cruelties of ages past affect us now
Copyright Credit: Lorenzo Thomas, “MMDCCXIII 1/2” from Chances are Few. Copyright © 1979 by Lorenzo Thomas. Reprinted by permission of Blue Wind Press.
Source: Chances are Few (Blue Wind Press, 1979)