The Totality Of Socially Transmitted Behavior
by Dave Ruslander

Hidden, like cheap wine
in a brown paper sack,
we live under the stairs
inside the shade of pilasters.

Anchored to a tabernacle
covered with cobwebs and grime
our ache for liberation,
for sanctuary,
is infinite.

Echoes from stilettos at the corner
pique our ears, awakening dulled senses
but blurred eyes fail us.

Our rummy nose sniffs for sage evidence –
the perfumed breeze deludes us
with human memories.
We brush ragged shadows
from our shoulders,

outstretch a hand beyond the dark
so that someone like you
might pull us to light.

Dave Ruslander lives in rural Virginia. True to the sweeping-generalization that southerners are slow, he didn't get around to writing until he was fifty. Since then he's written poetry, short stories, and one novel. His work has been published in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, The Green Tricycle, Cenotaph Pocket Edition, Retrozine, Womenbeat, MiPo, and many other print and digital publications.