Jonathan Douglas Dowdle’s most recent poem to appear here was “Streets of Awkward” (April 2020).

Midnight Confessional
By Jonathan Douglas Dowdle

My heart bleeds on these streets,
Where a thousand ties are left incomplete,
And I’m knotted up by thoughts
Best left to be washed clean
By the coming rain.

I’ve lost myself between
The ghost and the memory
As tongues wag the shallow thought
And think they speak
The deep.

If I’m a butterfly, my wings are pinioned
Against the wall of a thousand minds,
And I roam blind through this avalanche
Searching for a second chance,
Against the weight of circumstance.
While the ties that bind, break,
And leave all souls a’drift,
Dark wonder colors all of this,
Like ashes, pretending to fall as snow,
Colder than the coldest touch,
Straight against the bone.

As headlights and harmonies
Speak the epitome of home,
I dig further into the marrow of
What it means to be alone,
My heart bleeds on these streets,
Silent, and unseen,
Where people speak punchlines, headlines,
That never mean a thing,
Forget, oh forget, your holy offering,
And settle, for a breath, into your being.

As I try, as I might, to explain,
What’s only understood by the falling rain.