Gregory Luce
No Escape
Take one if it hurts,
two if it doesn’t
because the world is too much
it crowds in with its
traffic noise and cell phone
chatter, its birdsong, jazz
and guitar chords wafting
out of cafes, raindrops
spattering leaves,
its sunlight and unlit tunnels
its mobs on the Metro
and solitude in lonely parks
its jagged beauty and
encompassing horror
Take one if it hurts,
two if it doesn’t
because I need to stay awake
and feel the pain and pleasure
and breathe however raggedly
equilibrium is critical
is everything right
speech right conduct
right effort now
abandon silence
exile cunning
Take one if it hurts,
two if it doesn’t
Gregory Luce is the author of Signs of Small Grace (Pudding House Publications, 2010), Drinking Weather (Finishing Line Press, 2011), Memory and Desire (Sweatshoppe Publications, 2013), and Tile (Finishing Line Press, 2016). In addition to numerous journals, his poems have appeared in the anthologies Living in Storms (Eastern Washington University Press, 2008), Bigger Than They Appear (Accents Publishing, 2011), Unrequited: An Anthology of Love Poems about Inanimate Objects (CreateSpace, 2016) and Candlesticks and Daggers: An Anthology of Mixed-Genre Mysteries (CreateSpace, 2016). Recipient of the 2014 Larry Neal Award winner for adult poetry, awarded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Luce is retired from National Geographic, works as a creative writing instructor for Writopia Lab, and lives in Arlington, Virginia.
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