The Truth at Last
In later years
Bukowski said
death was perpetually
at his shoulder
He also said
life’s trials
never really end…
until they finally end
At the time
I viewed it as overly-dramatic
nihilism, over the slow pull
of a beer
or the drag of a beedi
But now I know
Life’s hard lessons come
when you’re ready for them
and sometimes not
Steven Meloan‘s fiction has appeared in SOMA Magazine, the Sonoma Valley Sun, Lummox Press, and Roadside Press, as well as at Litquake, Quiet Lightning, Library Girl, The Rapp Saloon Poetry Reading series, and other literary events. His short fiction collection, St. James Infirmary, was released in 2023 on Roadside Press, and a collaboration collection with his brother Michael, The Kind the Pharaohs Try, was released in 2024 on Naked Light Press. He is currently working on a collection of poetry. He is a recovered software developer, and a former busker in London, Paris, and Berlin.
