Unnecessary By Dan Provost

As the bass lines

Strays in rhythm

With the beer orders…

Electric mayhem

Flashing while looking

Out the window—the

Wind revolving a

Purgatory riff, oh God,

My loss spills blood 

Through my eyes. Seeing 

beings spontaneously crack 

Into splinters of

Unnecessary shame.

Inside the sphere of the

Conflict, beings beaten,

Busted by bureaucratic

Bounties. Paid nothing

For crimson knuckles.

 

Dan Provost’s poetry has been published both online and in print since 1993. He is the author of 17 books/ chapbooks, including All in a Pretty Little Row, released by Roadside Press, in November 2023. Notes From the Other Side of the Bed will be published by A Thin Slice of Anxiety Press in early 2025. His work has been nominated for The Best of the Net three times and has read his poetry throughout the United States. He lives in Keene, New Hampshire with his wife Laura, and dog Bella.