Ecce Homo by Donald Edwards

Ecce Homo by Donald Edwards

Ecce homo he announced as I neared the door

I could hear the droning of the conversations in the next room

The prattle of after dinner plans and tomorrow’s tasks to come

Then I entered and a few of the heads turned quick towards me

Then back like disrupted chickens in mid peck

Back to their world of talk and their tripartite meal

I took my distance and walked with it to a corner

There I could sit quiet without requiring any notice

There I commune with my thoughts which go no further than my fingers.

To be in a room nearly frantic with the echoes of silverware scratching china

Where I might reach out and touch with my words another human life

But I am not included because like all the other times I do not know how to be

Maybe we were always communal in our feedings in our comings and our goings

Did we always know lonely or was it a learned consideration

There’s a game here with rules above the other animals and me

One must know when to make a move or retreat to lower or to raise a glass

I was never any good at it not at this or any other of our games

My ex told me I was socially retarded before she left with her friends for the evening buffet

Don Edwards has published 5 books of poetry. He lives and writes in Los Angeles.