Jonathan Douglas Dowdle’s most recent poem to appear here was “Absent of Some Mercy” (March 2020).

Streets of Awkward
By Jonathan Douglas Dowdle

While you stumble through streets of awkward,
Twisted on the inside,
Guts clutching at the thought of a failure,
And tripping over your broken dreams.
I still see beauty in the fight of you,
And all the rooms that are filled
With hollow spaces,
only make room
For the music to echo,
Like thunder in your blood.

You see the world as
The fragile thing it is, every heart
Hanging by a string,
Turning, and waiting
To snap,
And are too busy
Being shaken by the coming wind
To see the beauty
In seeing that.

In your silence, we gather the voices,
We listen to the blood hum,
We listen to the dream’s sing.
Oh, love, they know not what they do,
And you do not know
Your offering.

As you laugh
To cover your tears,
Pray for the rain to come,
“Oh, God-willing.”
You are seen
In the puddles of reflections,
Flying through,
Even on broken wing.

And this is the softest courage,
In a silent violence
That speaks the world.
You have yet to know your strength,
Even as I watch it unfold.