I fail like a slogan. A frozen can of soda

            that cracks the pop-top, thaws and whispers

                        it’s carbonation. Flat as cold,

I wander the sidewalks of suburbia,

            look through windows, see the unuttered invitation

                        of furniture. If only there was a message

in the envelope addressed to me.

            It arrives with no return address.

                        The wind doesn’t yell or even sigh.

No leaves to shake in the trees.

            A culvert runs under the road,

                        too small to fit through.

The teeter-totter of chemical imbalance

            won’t shift its weight. Hibernation

                        a dreamless sleep,

I grant myself custody of my aloneness.

—

Doug Van Hooser’s poetry has appeared in Chariton Review, Split Rock Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, and Poetry Quarterly among other publications. His fiction can be found in Red Earth Review, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Bending Genres Journal. Doug is a playwright active at Three Cat Productions and Chicago Dramatists Theatre.