“Voices” by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer
Voices
Once I lived in fear
that they might
also begin for me
and what made
the waiting worse
was knowing
that by the time
they began
I would probably
no longer understand
them to be
the epiphenomena
of a derailed mind
but would instead
know them to be
unequivocally real
and caused
and directed
by Them the known
and unknown conspirators
striving 24/7
to achieve my undoing
which they would
in fact also be
despite not being real
Them and them
the conspirators
and the voices
but more the voices
which I waited for
for so long
I was so young
I almost missed them
when they didn’t come
Nathaniel Lachenmeyer is an award-winning disabled author of books for children and adults. His first book, The Outsider, which takes as its subject his late father's struggles with schizophrenia and homelessness, was published by Broadway Books. Nathaniel has forthcoming/recently published poems, stories and essays with Potomac Review, About Place Journal, Permafrost, Berkeley Poetry Review, Breakwater Review, Hawaii Pacific Review, Full Bleed, and DIAGRAM. His work has been nominated for three Pushcart awards. Nathaniel lives outside Atlanta with his family. www.NathanielLachenmeyer.com.
