I Don't Belong Here Poem by Scott J. Shepard

A ghost gone uphill bends my ear softly
whispers wearily "so help me God".

This. the construct of each institution I enter.
Every steeple,
bricks built in citadels;
the creaking doors,
rooftops that haunt me
removing nails from my feet
along floorboards in each room
So, help me, I must not belong here.

Carry me to my reclusiveness
All claustrophobic, agoraphobic.
Dare I stare at points of light in a formidable sky,
unfearful of reaching stars,
I'd wonder if flight were okay,
unafraid, no death on a doorstep,
just tremendous flight.

A politician sits somewhere
far away from my dreaded fears.
He is radical and militant,
considerate of his materials
Systematic and corporate,
industrial, rural.

Somewhere someone must've thought of me
No politician, maybe not friend nor foe
Alone here with what I fear most;

I mustn't belong anywhere
but in this ostracism..

I think of the man I saw on the news today
Someone must've jumped the gun
on his belonging too.
Not in the sky, he rests in a casket
along the margins of Long Island.

No quiet breath, humility murmuring;
I can hear their screams all the way from here
as if shouting at me;
devil eyed and shouting
as he passed those pearly gates
"You don't belong here" they said...
"You don't belong here"
"You don't belong here"
"You don't belong here'