MARK FITZPATRICK - SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL

MARK FITZPATRICK was born in the Naugatuck Valley of Connecticut where he began writing poetry and everything else in the 3rd grade.  He graduated from Barrington College with a BA in Biblical Studies and minor in Literature. He lived and worked in a low-income, African-American suburb of Chicago for over 20 years.  Then he went off to see the world, being an ESL teacher in Brazil, Somaliland, Haiti, and Honduras. Now, he's back where he was born and for the last four years taught at the English Language Service school at the University of New Haven.

He has had numerous poems, stories, etc. published over the past 25 years in  Parting Gifts, Oasis, The MacGuffin, Whiskey Island Review, The Small Pond Magazine of Literature, Oxford Review, Dramatic Shorts and many, many others.  His novel-in-verse was a finalist in the Tassy Walden Creative Writing for Young People contest in 2017 and he was nominated for  Pushcart Prize in 1994. Two of his plays have been catalogued; one play appeared in Qu, and another play came in as a finalist in the Tennessee Williams One Act Play Contest.

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL
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Everyday, my sadness comes
placed upon a paper towel
like a sliced apple --
wicked little dream I have
of being my own master
and running the biz as I say
(which is a phrase I myself coined
and like very much).

Everyday, my sadness comes
placed in a golden bowl
as if some gift has been offered.
He asks, "What's wrong?"
in that gentle, compassionate,
irritating way of His
when He knows far better than I
what the crux of the matter is.

Shall I tell Him what He already knows?
I cannot live much longer among these humming birds,
cannot stand the laughter in their voices.
Laughter should be deeper, more --
terrifying (another word of mine)
and make one spastically tremble.

Everyday, my sadness comes
and I relish it, sink deeper into it
until one day I will explode
and find myself
the brightest star
among these very dim luminaries.