Feature: Charles C Brooks III Day 4

Saturday Night in Athens

Autos are boarded then dissolve.
Painted faces and pressed slacks,
couples are cabbed together.
Small parties primp and flirt
with childish anxiety.

Their voices are exaggerated,
accepting, and tipsy.
They come, leave, then come again.
All the same, swooning on freedom,
sliding towards 1:00 am.

I lean, loaf, and feel
from this point of view.
Staring off, sober,
I’m a voyeur
watching for her.

© Charles C Brooks III

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Q&A

Q: What is your writing process? Do you write every day?

A: My writing process starts with me removed from the world. I’ll start by finding a poem or short story I haven’t seen in a while and try to catch that moment again. A majority of the time there’s a poem that’s haunted me all day at work, and it’s the first thing I do once I get home.

I try to work on a creative writing project every day, but on occasion I get in too deep and have to walk away for a while. When I don’t write verse or prose, I keep a journal. The act of writing is better than therapy.