Is he a drug addict?
Is he depressed?
Is he a murderer?

All questions posed by poised college students
reading what can only be their first
taste of one Edgar Allen Poe.

They don’t understand his fixations,
his musings into the human psyche.

“Why would he write about murder
unless he had thought about
committing it himself?”
a real question asked by a
fearful nineteen year old.

We can’t pretend. Every person inspects
the world for the unusual or deranged.
Every person fixates on the mysterious,
ponders what might one day kill them.
They each pray that no harm ever comes
to them, like what they see on the news.

Poe brings their fears into the spotlight.
He allows us to analyze every flaw
in the human condition. He puts the
dark and disastrous center stage.

He makes us face it.