Notes on Empathy
Howie Good

1
This isn't silence, but forgery,
the thick rubber soles
of the nighttime attendant.

2
Who are we?
Only the very people we seek,
the ones who abandoned
their cars in the road
with the doors flung open.

3
It rained on my birthday,
but what do you care,

it wasn't your birthday,
and it isn't raining still.

And besides,
you have a new haircut.