KEITH BURKHOLDER - POEMS

Keith Burkholder has been published in Creative Juices, Sol Magazine, Trellis Magazine, Foliate Oak Literary Journal, New Delta Review, Poetry Quarterly, and Scarlet Leaf Review.
He has a bachelor's degree in statistics with a minor in mathematics from SUNY at Buffalo (UB).

Bipolar

​She has this illness,
It affects her greatly,
Through relationships and holding a job,
Mental illness is real,
It took her a while to understand this,
Her life is different now,
She spends most of her time alone,
Most people don't understand her,
People are hard to figure out,
She will continue on with her life,
She is unemployed,
She writes a lot and goes with the flow,
Disability is what she has as an income,
Illnesses affect people differently,
This is the case for this woman,
Time will continue,
Her life will continue forward, too,
This is bipolar,
This is her illness,
There is nothing more to add,
I wish her well and hope for a better tomorrow as well.

​Would we need a military, if creationism was true?

​Think about this question for a moment,
Would the military be needed if God really cared about us?
For that matter, does God even exist?
Look at all of the tragedies in the world,
You see it in the news a lot,
Or even personal experiences,
The military is needed for extreme cases,
Yet, I never see God or Jesus swoop from the sky to help out,
Not even an iota,
People still believe in this stuff,
Yet, wars happen and all kinds of mass destruction,
To me, creationism is chock full of stories,
None of it is true,
Let's face it, we will always need a military,
For human problems and the weather disasters,
Yet, God keeps being spread to us,
Again, believe in what you want,
This is all you can do,
Humans love problems,
You can't change humans,
Look at the schools and what comes out of there,
This is just how it is,
The bullying is rampant in schools,
Yet, no real changes,
We as humans need to be better,
By spreading goodness,
Creationism is brainwashing to many extremes,
No realities,
Take care for now and just go down a path you feel is great and carry on.

​Imagine if life did exist in heaven

​Think about this title for a moment,
Imagine if life did really look upon us,
Imagine how greater the world would be,
No crime or poverty,
No wars or destruction,
Natural disasters being taken care,
Maybe, just maybe world peace,
It is great to fantasize,
But realistically, this will never happen,
People are brainwashed into believing in fantasies,
We live in a world of rules and regulations,
This is how it is and will always be,
People, in general, are warlike, barbaric, devious and ignorant,
This is really how it is,
Believe in what you want,
It is a free world for the most part,
Yet, these bad things will continue,
Take care and spread goodness,
Try to be nice, I emphasize, the trying part,
Carpe diem.

You are forced into things in life

​Think about how people behave,
Especially parents,
You are forced into things,
Schooling,
Religion,
Dealing with relatives,
Even making friends at a limited level in school,
I hated high school,
It made no sense to me whatsoever,
Think about college for a moment,
People that wouldn't give you the time of day,
Suddenly want to be friends if you see them in college,
This depends where you go,
I could never have kids,
The world is not a warm place to many,
Yet, if you go on Facebook, everyone has a great life,
It is life a fantasy on there,
I find it like me having a one night stand with Snow White,
Think all you want to about this,
There are no right answers,
Be yourself,
Be good,
Being good is a lot better than religion,
Take care,
And as I have said before, carpe diem.