VACANCY

 VACANCY

These days I just can't concentrate,

My thoughts shot down like beer cans on a fencepost,

Suicide bombers falling to the ground,

Making a lost and lonely sound that only I can hear.

Afraid of giving in to the false god of fear

But, oh, it does get lonely, and in the night I scream,

Awakened by a nightmare or a waking dream.

Wondering if I am wearing that infamous Parkinson's mask

Too tired to really care too much, too proud maybe to ask.

I'm like a vanquished soldier or a broken, bent oak tree,

Like a ghost that haunts an old hotel, adorned in vacancy.

 

I find myself half blind, squinting at my screen

Blurry the words, they tease and teem

Have several different eye diseases,

But I don't know what they mean,

Corneal epithelial basement membrane,

Did I spend too much time downstairs?

Saltzmann's nodular dystrophy of both eyes,

No wonder I get stares.

Irregular astigmatism of both eyes,

I should win some kind of prize.

Nuclear sclerosis of both eyes too.

I know it sounds like it's a lot, but what's a boy to do?

Like some deluded dreamer beneath the hickory tree

My eyes stare blankly straight ahead, awash in vacancy.

These days my nerves are worn and frayed,

I shun the sun and crave the shade 

lf someone doesn't like me, that's cool

I have Iess time to suffer fools,

I'll just pull up stakes and go my way,

Try to celebrate each day. 

Floating above the scorched hot ground,

Breaking ancient barriers of sound.

I still have dignity, still have my pride,

In a world where hopes and dreams collide.

I'm stolid and solid and in my heart I know I have the key,

To open up this ghost hotel, to fill this vacancy.

-Bruce Potts

Copyright 2025

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Note:  I am under the care of an ophthalmologist for the above mentioned eye issues.