Bruce Bennett


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A Hit of Dopamine

As you may already know, we get a small squirt
of dopamine when we see a message directed at us
or read a chat message from a friend. …
(from “Ouch! Millennials Can’t Go More Than 5 Hours Without Doing This”—Inc.)

You are feeling—admit it—inert,
but then you receive that small squirt.
Now the day has turned splendid!
Your ennui has ended.
You message, so no one feels hurt!

You message, but no one replies.
You are desolate, stunned with surprise!
How could they desert you?
They all mean to hurt you.
The love they professed was all lies!

But then, there it is. Glory be!
I’ve been messaged again. Just for me!
The endorphin high grows
as the dopamine flows.
You feel beautiful, blissful, and free!


Don’t Like Me on Facebook

Don’t like me on Facebook.
Don’t make me a star
on Tumblr or Twitter.
What’s better by far

Than texting or sexting
or learning what’s new
on Snapchat or Viber
is talking to you!

I want to touch someone
who’s here in this room.
I don’t want to savor
some virtual bloom.

I don’t want what’s cyber.
I want something real.
Come here as a person.
Come on, Dear. Let’s feel!

Be here as a presence
with substance and grace.
Don’t like me on Facebook.
Be here with your face!


The Poison

(see Blake’s “A Poison Tree”)

I was angry with my Prez;
I told my good friend with a fez.
He told me he was angry too,
And said he wondered what to do.

I said, “Do nothing. It will pass.
The man’s a blowhard and an ass.
He’s got the mindset of a toad.
Ignore him. He will soon implode.”

My friend said, “That is fine advice.
But meantime I must pay a price.
I have to hide out in my house
And guard my children and my spouse.”

And then I saw that he was right,
And so I got up in the night
And wrote this poem for all to see.
And now they’re coming after me!

Bruce Bennett‘s most recent book is Just Another Day in Just Our Town: Poems New And Selected, 2000-2016 (Orchises Press, 2017). The book before that was The Donald Trump of the Republic (FootHills Publishing, 2016). He is Professor Emeritus of English at Wells College, where he taught literature and creative writing from 1973 to 2014.