Plain Tendency

When I first met him
He looked me straight in the eye
He was all grinning teeth
He let himself in where my grandfather napped
On that faded sofa in the tv room
Course, we expected him to go soon
O Plain Tendency!
We meet again —
I’ve met you too often
I don’t know what to do
When I see your grin
You hollow me out from within
When I next met him
Only three months more
When he took my daddy too
My halfshut eyelids withdrew to the floor
As they moved his body to an unmarked van
The silence hung upon the walls of the den
Until it roared
O Plain Tendency!
We meet again —
I’ve met you too often
I don’t know what to do
When I see your grin
You hollow me out from within
So now I sit still
I will wait ‘till nightfall
When my head turns blank
I am at ease with his swiftness with my kin
But I can’t forget the face I invented
And placed in my recollection —
Yeah, I regret the day I met him
I sit and wait for this
Plain Tendency —
My heart is full
With a grief so elemental
It can be split no further
By distraction or whim
So I ask you as a friend —
When will I see you again, again, again?