UNDERGROUND VOICES MAGAZINE/CARL MILLER DANIELS


	UNDERGROUND VOICES: POETRY - 12/2011

CARL MILLER DANIELS

bye

over the years,
i have met a lot of people, and
some of them i became friendly with.
and some of those
i have abandoned,
dropped,
ignored,
or otherwise
banished through neglect.
**
i let them fade away
because within me
the main feeling
i began to feel about
them was
disinterest,
dislike,
disgust,
overfamiliarity:
a general feeling
of "ich."
**
after i dismissed
them, i was
glad to never see
them again.
**
i say this
as if i am proud
of myself, yet truly
i am not.
**
it makes me sound
cold, merciless, snobby.
**
actually, i have this recurring
dream in which my heart has
been removed and then replaced
by a little ice cube.
somehow the ice cube never melts, and
yet it keeps on getting
smaller and smaller. soon, it's
so little, it's hardly even worth
bothering about: an afterthought of
an afterthought, beating so very quietly,
it barely makes a sound.

too too

the gratitude of a nation was nearly inexpressible
as it contemplated
the sacrifices
of its gay leaders,
their struggle and their
demands and their
explanations.
oh how the nation
was grateful to its gay leaders,
oh how the nation
loved them and embraced them
and wished them well. "we love
the homosexuals," said the nation.
"we just adore them!"
**
no sarcasm intended.
**
really.

Carl Miller Daniels is 59 years old. Gorilla Architecture, his first full-length book, was just published by Interior Noise Press (October 2011). Daniels did an interview with Future Tense Books a while back: http://www.futuretensebooks.com/futuret/interviews/mdaniels.html. Daniels drinks too much. Other than that, reliable sources indicate that he's darn-near perfect.