The voices assemble
speaking as one
different languages
gathered as spirit
flow through this
moment unheard
even broken
into fragments
though you may
have missed them
turn off your screens
and listen
Tag: Poetry
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MayPoWriMo 31
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MayPoWriMo 30
The streets have gone
from empty
to prevent a disease
to full in observance of
the original disease
that has plagued
these streets since
the auction block
tolled its bells
ringing in a new day
of profits for
the already enriched
and will continue
looting these streets
until all the windows
have been shattered
and we cannot see
the flames for the smoke
rising in our feeds
until we can’t
breathe
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MayPoWriMo 29
One of the tags on the church across the street reads #BLM The pastor and congregants agreed the tag will be one they will keep
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MayPoWriMo 28
Since days go by without a second thought
Of where we are or where we all could be
Identities defined by what we bought
We hide our faces so no one can see
The fabric of our lives is but a span
We hope is threaded through more future days
To live and know enough to say we can
Rest easy or at least avert our gaze
And cross the street as coughing cars go by
Not knowing what the next block has in store
Turns out we humans have enough to buy
When we can freely enter as before
The unexamined lives that were unkind
To all—oh well whatever never mind
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MayPoWriMo 27
To forestall doom it’s time to go full doomer
The plants I watered shrivel in their pots
I have been known to be the latest boomer
To say okay and then take all the shots
A hundred thousand stories now cut short
Depending on which zip code you reside
Let’s all go back to normal and abort
The inconveniences we can’t abide
It happens or it doesn’t—take a breath
This worrying does no one any good
There are some fates they say are worse than death
The plants are saturated with our blood
Then let this be the path to our disaster
Two months? Too slow. We should just make it faster
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MayPoWriMo 26
Our human capital stock is ready to go back to work
Our human sacrificial virgin is ready to ascend the volcano
Our human critical thought is ready to be persuaded in 256 characters
Our human sound bites are ready to be expurgated from the record
Our human physical faces are ready to wear a mask already
Our human education facilitators are ready to do whatever their associate vice assistant to the dean says
Our human essential workforce is ready for a break from your entitled outbursts FFS
Our human content creators are ready to go viral for exposure
Our human respiratory system is ready to get choked by droplets and knees
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MayPoWriMo 25
I cannot remember the stories
that should be memorialized today
because they were not told to me
However I hold in place of
an experience too horrific to verbalize
the firmest handshake anyone has given
It was a way of saying if gestures
could tell the stories of a lifetime
I survived what they put us through
Now you’re alive here before me
and this is the most important thing
I can ever do to remind you
the things I will not recall to say
they cannot take everything away
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MayPoWriMo 23
These days
it’s getting harder
as if
it wasn’t already
nearly
impossible to tell
real life
from a dream or
a long
forgotten past so
vivid
it still tastes raw
like layers
of an onion coming
apart
until you don’t know what
is still
good enough to eat
but with
just barely the tiniest bit of
pruning
so much in fact the scars
still show
anything you have to offer is
enough
is good is here is home
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MayPoWriMo 22
Webinar Survey
I fear returning
to work
before democracy
itself
runs out of time
and breath
and we are bereaved
left
to face our neighbors
not all yet
knowing they would
spit on us
just because they
could
and graffitied vans
emblazoned
with ‘don’t believe the virus’
and ‘hoax’
drive off to places
unknown
spreading their germs
before we
get a chance to cross
the street
Joshua Keiter 