KEITH BURKHOLDER - POEMS

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

The Suicide

​Now dead to the world,
He was not well-known,
But it was a tragic way to end his life,
He was only thirty-five years old,
A true Samaritan in every sense of the word,
What will happen next in life?
Could he reincarnate from the dead?
No one really knows about this,
For now his life was ended in a lynching,
He died a tragic way,
This can happen to anyone,
Of any age,
One moment here,
The next he is gone,
For this is suicide,
Let time pass and let your life be complete,
For death is eternal and this is just the way life is for us all.

​The Past

​Think about this for a moment,
We are all forced into things,
Education,
Religion,
Relatives,
And other activities,
Do you even care about high school?
Ok, maybe if you earned awards,
To be recognized for something,
But in essence, do you care about you former classmates?
Do you even care if they are alive?
That is what Facebook is for,
People go on there,
They broadcast their lives,
Do you even care?
Most of us don't,
That is more than okay,
We have pasts,
There is the present,
Then the future,
Be good to yourself,
And try to be to others,
Tomorrow is a new day,
Let it be good to you as it arrives.