Greasy Spoon Saloon: Joan and Jerome

i saw Joan everywhere
she was dressed in drag
(as a man)
her hair clipped
her tiny bones chipped
skin flayed
mounted on a disk
her bosom bound
heard her voice
like she Catherine, Margaret and Michael
saw her name
in spidery script
took the wax seal to mean
this little bit was real
in front of her i cried
symbolic womanhood
at her pire i offered
my feeble attempts
at avoiding sin
a series of mortal near misses
and a broken heart
but actually she wasn't there
off somewhere with Jerome
what i saw was actually
John
no one has seen Joan in along time
except for me

By Laurel K. Graham

Last words of a dying man

Sadness, grief and sorrow are emotions we all experience. Poets and writers have long realized how expressing your emotions with words can help in dealing with the pain. To give words to your deepest feelings, to shape your most painful emotions into verse, to release the pain locked in your heart; this is the true power of the poem.Some of the most famous poets lived sad, dark, depressed lives filled with pain, loneliness, depression and even suicide. These poets were artists who used words to express their painful and sad feelings and share them with the world. These words joined together became poetry, sad poetry filled with their yearnings for relief from their pain. Their unbearable sadness was the catalyst for some of the best poems ever written.