Eric Pederson, US

 

 

Dramatic Monologue   Beyond the Obvious   I’ve been here. I’ve been there. I’ve seen it all. The way they walk and the way they talk. Throughout time I have studied them and Watched their lives fade like a passing shadow. Yet I fail to comprehend their ways. Some are overwhelmed and some are shifty while some are lazy as the tropical sun. Why do they let their hungry starve? Why do they let their homeless freeze? Why do they let their wealthy rule without regard to the lesser man? Why are some forced to sleep in filth and suffer the wrath of disease while others bathe in gold? Some are dreamers but few are doers. Up here, floating by, you’d think it would all make sense after awhile. They build engines to wage grand wars, like a never ending-ending game of chess in the name of something unknown to them; fighting simply because they’ve been told too. These crusades pitting fiend against friend. Internal ambitions leveraging hate. Ambition makes you look pretty ugly. They divide themselves among their kinds and choose to call themselves minorities. Everything has to be related to race. They breathe the same air each day. They all bleed red. Up here, we are one and live together. The cumulus, nimbus, stratus, and cirrus. All float as one. All are one. One is me. I am in control of all below: what they do, when they do it. They try to predict what they think I will do. Often I’ll give them the satisfaction Of thinking they guessed right. But that is what it will always remain. Floating by, way up here, I still don’t know Why they do just exactly what they do. I’ve yet to discover what it is they seek, but their ambitions seem to be enough for them. I’ll just float by, way up here, and watch some more. I’ll take some notes and maybe soon, I will learn.     Read Additional Poems by Eric Pederson   Eric Pederson, US: Ekphrastic Poem—Two Lefts Don’t Make a Right, But Three Do     About Eric Pederson   Eric Pederson is a senior at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse; he is majoring in English and High School Education. In addition to writing poetry, Eric is writing a novel which he hopes to have completed by the end of summer, 2009. He enjoys all types of outdoor activity, including biking, Frisbee, snowmobiling, snowboarding, and hiking. Eric is pictured with Kristi Sauer, his fiancée; the couple will be married in the summer of 2009.  Kristi is an English major at UWL. This is Eric's first appearance in Sketchbook. Kristi Sauer and Eric Pederson