Back to Issue 3

The Need Placed on Me, By Me by Louis Burdi

To be needed by others
is a sacrifice and a privilege.
A burden to your life;
an oh so sweet burden.
Like the importance of sun in summer,
or frost in winter.
The normative certainties of our lives,
creating comfort amidst insecurity,
ignorantly underestimating the fragility
of knowing what you know,
but showing what you show.

I envy such ignorance
watching the complacency of day
and restfulness of night
and the significance of non verbatim.
The arrogance of one can shadow
All that is intently right in another.
I've tasted sinful pride, swallowed distortion
to appeal to insatiable hunger
suppressed only when I open my eyes
allowing time to be uncharacteristically kind.