“Looking for Someone Who Might Care” by Sam Hendrian

Park bench, grocery store line, 

A public bathroom sink 

Provide a platform for blank eyes 

Looking for someone who might care. 

They thought it was enough 

To cap off the day with leftovers 

Before learning then learning again 

Dinner can't substitute for a warm body. 

Not much of a science experiment, 

Not much of an art project, 

More like a gamble 

In a thousand-to-one world. 

Automated intelligence can simulate sex 

Which is mostly automated and unintelligent anyway 

But after the third or fourth back-and-forth 

There's no going back from backing into a paywall. 

Occasionally transactions disappear

Although that means little considering 

For every one person succeeding

There are a million people failing.

Church pew, DMV counter,

A public private message 

Testify to eternal Dust Bowl migrants 

Looking for someone who might care. 

Sam Hendrian is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, poet, and playwright striving to foster empathy through art. From writing personalized poems for passersby outside of an LA bookstore every week, to making Chaplin-esque silent films about loneliness and human connection nearly once a month, Sam lives to make other people feel seen and validated. More work can be found on Amazon, YouTube, and in various online literary magazines.