These Are Troubled Times Poem by Windsor Guadalupe Jr

These are troubled times
That I have bastioned so well –
The night is swollen.
The winds are harsh and impertinent.
I wonder where all the people go
When they feel like going.
Can you understand me,
When I tell you, perhaps, in my own context
That I feel like going,
And to have said it numerous times
Must have rendered me wholly insane
Or perhaps obnoxious.

This, I wonder about you –
To all those who just
Sleep with different women,
Who wined and dined
And thought about making love
To every woman there is.
Is life easy for you?
This, I wonder about you –
Any of you.
To all those who think
Life is a petty gamble of chances,
Who wager everything among themselves they say,
But then forget the will to strive and fray
To those women
Who only care about how neat and debonair
A man’s hair is tousled to the direction
Of all the good and dandy things in life
Tell me – is life easy for you?

Then let me tell you how life is.
To be isolated in a corner
Where all people take turns
In between drags of blunt
And sips of chardonnay
To forget about the time
Even when one has a watch
That is coiled securely around his left wrist
To forget about the date
When you know so well
That every single day must be remembered
Though there is no relevance between
Short sighs and long hours.
To think about love
And never have it
To not think about misery
But you end up having it anyway
Let me ask you this:
If I slept with women, like you
If my only concern is how a woman looks naked
Or perhaps, with her naked body pressing
Against me – will life take it easy on me?
What if you forgot about the time,
The date, the place and your errands?
And I ended up, sleeping with women,
Drinking chardonnay and reveling with my
Blunt – would you trade places?
I will never trade my place with yours.
I know more than you.