Rick Doyle

I am a man
I am a man reading

a story in a newspaper
about another man

who languishes
in solitary confinement

whose age is that
of my own son.

Rick Doyle, poet and playwright, practices law in Downeast Maine. His poetry has been published in numerous journals, including Kaleidotrope and The Cafe Review, and won a SpiritWord Honors Award from the Maine Poetries Collective. His one-act play, Regalia, was selected as a winner in the Maine Playwrights Contest and presented in readings at Acorn School of Performing Arts, Stonington Opera House, and elsewhere. He has recently completed Regina Snowdeal, a full-length play exploring the efforts of a survivor of domestic violence to reunite with her son after he has been removed from her home by the state.

This poem appeared in Record of Dissent: Poems of Protest in an Authoritarian Age — Summer 2025, published by The Chaos Section Poetry Project. We’ll be featuring each poem from the collection individually in the weeks ahead. You can read the full collection or download a free PDF of the chapbook here.