By Paul Dickey

“it is these wall you understand
dear they paper thin and I’m
always afraid we are falling
through the floors buy I am
the first to admit that George
on occasion comes home a bit
too drunk but who could be
a better father to the kids and
I’ll stay with him don’t worry
only I wished it wouldn’t be so
hard on my friends you the good
people who put up with it and
get up early in the morning.

Oh the music? At times dear we
have to throw a party but I
told George last night I’m
getting sick of going around
the next day to the whole
apartment house if only George
I told George why can’t we
be better neighbors like you
Don and Brenda we never
hear a words out of you and
George said maybe we’re not
damn quiet enough to hear and
well you know George and
I won’t go into what George said
said but be agreed with me and

I think it’s going to try to do
better honey and I don’t know
what more to say, forgive us.”

###

Paul Dickey lives in Omaha, NE but he wrote poetry in Wichita, Kansas in the 1970’s. He published then in Kansas Quarterly, Mikrokomos, Nimrod, Karamu, and Quartet. Now in 2024 after many years, Dickey has now published for his early poems with a new book, I Forget I Live Alone.