POETRY BY BENJAMIN BAUM

Benjamin Baum was raised in the piney woods of East Texas, surrounded by animals and green, growing things. He wrote his first story at eight—a truly harrowing tale about a horseback ride through an evil forest teeming with thorn bushes—and hasn’t stopped writing since.
He currently lives on a farm with his dogs, a flock of chickens, and a moody tortoise named “Voldetort.” When not studying medicine or adding to his plant hoard, he can usually be found at coffee shops, weaving words together.
THE PROTAGONIST
What are we but living stories?
Journeying our way through time?
Our lives but plots and characters,
Ourselves just prose and rhyme?
Every thought a sentence,
And every deed a page.
Word by word, into volumes—
Day by day for decades.
And eventually we reach the end,
Of life’s exquisite tale.
The last page of our grand adventure,
When strength and story fail.
And we must journey on to realms,
Where readers cannot be.
Some have named this chapter “death—”
Others, eternity.
CHAMBER BY CHAMBER
Loneliness feels
Like being naked in arctic storms.
Freezing, yet burning,
Pieces of you turning
To midnight,
Then sloughing off,
Scattering like burnt leaves,
In a bitter, biting wind,
Into all the futures that could have been.
The heart does slowly.
Chamber by chamber.
1955 VS. 2015
It’s 7pm,
The doorbell rings,
In 19 and 55.
Husbands rush to the door,
The children close behind.
The door is opened—
Why, it’s friends!
A welcome company.
Smiles usher them inside,
Greeted wholeheartedly.
It’s 7pm,
The doorbell rings,
In 20 and 15.
Children fall silent; parent’s stare
Frightened by the ring.
“A salesman.”
“A pesky minister.”
The parents grump in anger.
“A robber.”
“No, a murderer.”
The children echo danger.
THREADS OF ARIANDE
Lay in the dark.
Endlessly scrolling.
Strolling
Through other’s lives.
Wanting his body.
Wanting her money.
Their smiles and happiness.
A house of mirrors.
Each reflection superior.
Hovering round my head,
Like ghosts.
Unraveling my thoughts
Like the fabled threads
Of Ariadne.
Strings,
The only things
That helped me survive
This labyrinth of life.
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