Driving home from church
lights on in every window
of the apartments
everyone staying
inside to spite the darkness
makes a festive glow
silhouettes all we have left
Category: Poems
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DecPoWriMo 20
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DecPoWriMo 18
Trying to avoid slipping
into easy symbolism
after having spent most of
the day attempting to reset
a device that decided to stop
working after months of
intermittent connectivity
and limited usefulness
I’ve lost count of how
many times I pressed
a nonexistent button only
for it to announce it is being
configured and additional
settings available shortly
which is another way of not
saying shortly never comes
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DecPoWriMo 17
Driving around doing errands
listening to an interview
about a story about how
this country cannot accomplish
the bare minimum to look after
all the lives the so-called pro-life
people could not care less about
we do our shopping for essentials
holidays are already at a discount
and go to three stores before
finding a water closet we can use
free of charge that is not out of order
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DecPoWriMo 16
Welcome this is
your new home
not what you were
expecting is it
land of bureaucracy
sitting on the floor
expecting improvement
while staying dirt poor
and since you are here
let us explain
we’ve lost count of our rights
how few remain
we the people
try to limit people
from describing themselves
as people
and as for the others
the less said the better
we follow malpractice
to the letter
pay no attention
to the insurrection
that is bending
in your direction
we’d rather say hi
and give some gift cards
get used to being American
we find it’s pretty hard
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DecPoWriMo 15
Unprecedented the way
we’ve been here before
except the wind has picked up
carrying the past across
one state to another
extremes become the new normal
if we wait any longer we won’t
have to predict the worst outcome
the way we wave goodbye
as soon as we reluctantly arrive
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DecPoWriMo 14
Sometimes the file where
I write these
runs out of memory
and opens at
the very first one
I wrote when the pandemic
was a few weeks old
and already turning
into eternity
so I wait for the whole
document to load
and scroll six hundred
some pages to find
the white space
to write another
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DecPoWriMo 13
I remember waiting
to press record
as soon as they appeared
on the TV show
wishing I could go
to the concert
listening to the cassette
as a replacement
now three of four gone
in less than ten years
only one remains
a believer of daydreams
the morning she died
and I did not know
I wanted to watch the show
all day long with her
now they are with her
to sing along with
and I don’t know if I’ve
ever loved any other
half as much as I do
now this light’s gone under
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DecPoWriMo 12
Device dissonance
tornado destruction
displays on my phone
while my watch
announces a new email
The Best Places to
Live Right Now
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DecPoWriMo 11
Unseasonable weather
bearing down across
the country and the couch
two hundred miles wide
unheard of in any
ordinary terms
tomorrow might return
to normal temperatures
in the meantime here is
weight evenly distributed
throughout the atmosphere
no need to name
that sense of foreboding
as anything other than these
clouds too dark to see by
wind creating shapes cutting
through the curtains
joggers in shorts trudge along
some circuits remain unclosed
how does catastrophe
make itself known without
evidence rippling through the air
even if we don’t know when
it becomes unbreathable
Joshua Keiter 