Waiting Poem by Allan Thorne

I sit in my apartment waiting to die.

My girl friend across town is waiting for
Salvation or enlightenment or something like that

The kids in the little park across the street
Are waiting to get high,
Waiting to get pregnant.
Waiting to be arrested,

The guy across the hall is is waiting also,
waiting for the landlord to throw him out.

He let his girlfriend stay in his apartment
While he was away.
The girlfriend stole everyones mail
And ran up five thousand dollars worth of charges
On other peoples credit cards.

The other people in the building
Are waiting for him to leave.

When he isn't watching TV
The guy across the hall
Stands outside his door waiting
For someone to pass, someone he can talk to,
someone who will listen to his side of the story,
Someone who will forgive him,
someone to say, 'It's all right,
You can stay if you want.

But that isn't going to happen.
Nobody cares whose fault it was.
They have lost their money and they are mad.
They are not going to forgive him.

I have heard his sad tale several times
And I have taken to leaving my apartment very quietly
So as not to arouse the guy across the hall.
It is not my problem
I cannot forgive him if I wanted to
And I am very busy, very busy
Waiting to die.