Inclined to the immediate
replete in its complicities.
It ferrets out all the details,
regardless of hostile power.
Engaged in dialogue,
rude with a phantom.
(There’s always
rude phantoms
in the works.)
Serving as a third party,
they’re uninvited guests.
Witnessing confessions,
they’re invisible arbiters
in a comfortable alliance.

Michael Igoe, city boy, neurodiverse. Chicago now Boston. Numerous works appear in journals and anthologies ( amazon.com, lulu.com, barnesandnoble.com). Regular contributor to feversofthemindpress.com. National Library of Poetry Editor’s Choice Award 1997
Twitter: MichaelIgoe5
website: poetry-in-motion.org