"Next Door" by Amy Beeder from DIODE POETRY JOURNAL

Today's poem is by Amy Beeder

Next Door
A hundred eyes & one darkness— Ovid, Metamorphoses

Living on window-stunned doves is permitted, but
No loose dogs. No anonymous beekeeping. Nor
In the vacant lot. Rinse out your glass. No
Tiki thatch or blocking the sidewalk with bunk beds
& crutches, no exhorting your neighbors to ditch
Their sparse grass. No weed or invoking of plague
Or carpet moths in Spring. No burning. Vigilance is key.
Know we are daily assailed by strangers with wrenches
For hands. For spite they turn the faucets on full blast.
They flee their household gods. Keep an eye out
For those squatters in loose pants, souls of the dead hid
In crow-skin, narcosis in all its disguises. Dear Neighbor
If our doorbell camera should flicker don't mind it:
It's only neuralgia. In the spirit of fruitful future exchanges
On the Egress of Mercury, on Dread, Grief & Terror,
We sincerely indeed we most desperate say Welcome—

Copyright © 2025 Amy Beeder All rights reserved
from diode poetry journal
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission

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