Midlife and Exit Seeking
If I was who they said I was
I wouldn’t still be standing here
before invisible footlights.
I am intractable because I do
consider they may be right.
They send me their averrals
with coercive inferences
and their faint damn stares
because they think I will comply
with their inferred narratives.
There is a merciless social theatre
that has been held over since
before me, because so many
line up, attend it and tend to it
as they are scripted to do.
When I realized I was expected
to perform as everyone else
I realized I had neither the desire,
nor even the required deceit or
guile to put up a show.
No one knows what my line is
until I have thought and spoken.
The rank expectation of me
to don mask and play role
in their duplicitous production
I refuse now, and will continue
to refuse until I know I am
as I wish to originate.
©2023 David Alec Knight All rights reserved.
David Alec Knight grew up in Chatham, Ontario, Canada.
He includes his middle name in his pen name as a means of disambiguation, his first and last name being fairly common. It is in response to being ignorantly perceived as a pretension by others that he wrote the poem “Disambiguation”.
In 2021, David was recipient of The Ted Plantos Memorial Award for Poetry. His first book of poetry, The Heart Is A Hollow Organ, soon followed. His second book of poetry, LEPER MOSH, was published by Cajun Mutt Press in 2022. It featured his artwork on the cover. Cajun Mutt Press would also feature a portfolio of his artwork online, as well as publishing his first full color comic story online, WRATH: The Masks We Wear.
Recent poems have appeared in Verse Afire, Cajun Mutt Press Featured Poet, The Lothlorien Poetry Journal and Medusa’s Kitchen. Anthology appearances include By The Wishing Tree, Poets For Ukraine Volume 1, Love Lies Bleeding, Phantom Parade, and The Cajun Mutt Press Halloween Anthology Zine 2022.
David sees dark and light around him in equal measure and that is reflected in his poetry, whether exploring working class themes, neurodivergence, addiction, urban living, our conflict with Nature, and the effects all these things have on relationships.
David works full-time in Long Term Care.
US
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFWJ41G9
CA
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0BFWJ41G9
“David Alec Knight’s ‘Leper Mosh‘ is an amalgamation of beauty and darkness. From waxing nostalgic about a youth of heavy metal, horror films, and comics to turning mirrors into windows of a woman’s soul, this book hits with full-throttle force. Even at its more bittersweet or softer moments, there is an underlying edge that runs the gamut of this book. With lines like: “Outside, distant sirens prowl. We reach for the first dark and our desires make light,” Knight’s repertoire of emotive language makes ‘Leper Mosh‘ a poignant read and a definite keeper. Any fan of poetry will love this book.”
—Heath Brougher, editor-in-chief of Concrete Mist Press
“The secret Knight is letting the reader in on… Well you already know, but you hide from it, you ignore it, you bury it. But, there is no getting past Knight’s willingness to dive into the morose, the malaise and the madness of life. This collection of poems is filled with gems and insight, and an unflinching look at a life unfurled.”
—Rob Azevado (Don’t Order The Calamari, Turning on The Wasp)