---

Jason Douglas Pruitt

Sitting at the pub poring
out the contents of the heart,
life loses its meaning.

Spiritual and physical desire
become entangled in a web
of conflicting emotion.

Friends, lovers, and strangers
seen periodically constitute
the malignant audience.

We drown our lives
in dark brown beer
as our care floats away.

In a crowd we sit,
but loneliness remains
taunting our exasperated beings.

The cancer grows strong
devouring our souls
with ravenous tenacity.