It seems that all the songs
We sing to ourselves
In the middle of the night
Waiting for dawn
To return in our sleep
Are gifts from the future
Where we are not dead
And our being is not loss
That you remember
The pictures you never took
This temporary flesh fresco
Still potential from ear to mouth
Recollecting the day as
Momentarily in your grasp
Though years have since passed
And the song faded out
To be replaced with this
Ever present empty loudness
The only song left to sing
A day that never happened
Category: Poems
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JanPoWriMo 14
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JanPoWriMo 12
Sclerotic insistence
That it is divisive
To point out
The divisiveness
Of one’s own
Divisive rhetoric
Is probably what keeps
These divisive fascists
From any kind of
Decisive accountability
They may keep insisting
Their derisive platitudes
Will keep playing
To the peanut gallery
But that is undeniably
A losing proposition
Since the shells are
Already scattered
Knee deep on the floor
Behind the barricaded door
Those who know how
To survive learned in school
How difficult is it to endure
A little inconvenience
To keep your constituents
Alive you fools
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JanPoWriMo 11
Still getting acquainted with
The way they tend to plants
In our apartment complex
Apparently the bushes and shrubs
Around the buildings were
Growing out of control
Although it seemed like
The plants had reclaimed some
Sense of decorum since the shape
They took on their own was covering
The windows out of which
We could see them growing
A crew of men in yellow shirts
Were hacking down the branches
And kicking found soccer balls
For most of the day today
Until there was little left but
Severe unassuming nubs
That only time will determine
If they will ever grow back
In the meantime the view from
What we discern are empty units
Across the way has been reclaimed
We can see the curtained windows
Which now seem to be framed
By the horticultural devastation
The branches were carried away
One would hope to be recycled
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JanPoWriMo 10
Thinking of the unfinished
Stories we have yet
To begin begets an ending
Not unresolved but glossed
Over as in looking at the index
For some indication where
The reference might find
Its antecedent no accident
There is none to be found
Just a uniformed person
Heroically provoking the terrorists
Up the stairs past the open door
Still un-evacuated proving
A riot is easily distracted
By its own prejudices
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JanPoWriMo 9
Five years ago
Around the time
David Bowie died
I was having delusions
I would soon become
The lone inhabitant
Of a dying earth
Hurtling toward the sun
After unleashing
Through my own
Most grievous ignorance
The end of the world
I cannot say for certain if
The intervening five years
Have slowed down
Or accelerated such
Far fetched delusions
But I snapped out of them
Eventually and when
I could listen to music again
I turned to Bowie and
Recognized similar visions
Proving once and for all
The anxiety of influence
Must influence anxiety
The insurrection of memory
Turns out to be
Who we were all along
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JanPoWriMo 7
I was genuinely surprised
To see the sunshine this morning
As if sending a message
That all the white smoke and gas
Could be burned off
With a little photosynthesis
And the world could be
Technically in color again
Even as rats departed
The sinking ship to ensure
They would not have to invoke
The 25th before too long
Their crimes will come to light
The sun will see to it
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JanPoWriMo 6
The best a presidential historian
Just could muster is
I don’t mean to leave everybody
Hanging but
We’ll just have to wait and see if
Our system holds
You and I have children and they
Are in danger tonight
The country the country is in danger
The newscaster
(In another building due to the ongoing
Emergency)
Explained while the historian nodded
And nodded putting
A period on this unprecedented day
That is still happening
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JanPoWriMo 5
It is perhaps entirely
Within
The realm of possibility
That somehow even through
The midst
Of an age such as this one
We grow in almost two
Separate
Yet transparent dimensions
To appreciate in our lack of
Absences
The sound of a face
The smile of a voice
Enacting play
The only way we know how
Which is still human
Within
Joshua Keiter 