Notes on Empathy by Howie Good

NOTES ON EMPATHY
by Howie Good

1
This isn’t silence, but a 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.

Author bio:

Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of six poetry chapbooks, including Tomorrowland, forthcoming from Achilles Chapbooks. He has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize and twice for the Best of the Net anthology.