The Collected Writings of Brian J. Mueller

A single poem, met at the right moment, can change a life.

Search and read all 1,834 pieces by Brian J. Mueller — 1,675 poems, 38 prose pieces, and 121 haiku from 12 published volumes. Free to read and share.

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All Those Places

...once thought of as somewhere.

This will be a silly poem.
But sometimes all you need
is just a few simple words,
not too self-conscious,
and not at all concerned
about who won’t like them.

So here it goes,
this is my ode
to Wheeling, West Virginia,
to Ashland, Kentucky,
to Portsmouth, Ohio,
to Gary, Indiana,
and to all of those places
once thought of as somewhere,
but that are now an afterthought
except to those souls who
frequent the old McDonald’s,
getting to know the characters
from the local cast of life,
lending an ear listening
to the sad soliloquies
of the forgotten.