Allison Rudolf

The Puppeteer

Paige Zezulka

I’ve seen grown men cry From their sorrows With whiskey and goodbyes In spirit with the pledge Doomed with the next Leaning against a wall Cracked led paint As they slip away their last take The glimpse of them His biggest mistake I’ve heard the sobs Of a young girl As her head is deep within a bowl Filled with chunks of green And stains of urine And the smell of the person before Gushing vomit from her red lips Black liner staining the tips Of her cherry cheeks As she grips for a breath to feel anew Wondering how she’ll get home to catch her curfew Then there is the man next door His light always dimmed In his wood shop Bottles fill the floor I never see him Just hear him, late evening As much as I try To cover my ears I feel what his wife fears The constant grunts

Pounded underneath What a man truly hunts And me I’ve seen Letting my psyche release Betray the next Stumble with text Fail to realize Friends will leave If you’re not wise Enough to believe I have felt The pit in my gut When someone ends up In a rut With no place to go Besides the nowhere Neither heaven or hell Just a place they can bare The feeling inside Of their dark despair These spirits that appear Rise out from the bodies Controlled by the puppeteer Up to no good Doing things you never would If you were you Without this dependence You would know what to do And how to end this I’ve seen this poison Take over the lives Of dear ones close to me No matter how one tries In order to move forward They have to see Like me