Let the warning ride forth once more:
tyranny is at our doors
No this time it’s not the same
a whole lot of stupid perpetrated in our names
Somebody somewhere is spilling the tea
don’t need to genuflect or bend a knee
Just join a march or share the pictures
read a book or listen to the lecture
We the people can throw out a president
these truths will be and remain self-evident
250 years is kind of a good ride
still haven’t gotten to the other side
Hard to know what the future will bring
except in this country: no kings
Tag: Sonnet
-
Revere Rhyme
-
Out of Tomb
New holiday in life first time
experienced such that understanding why
pretend plastic eggs literally
carpeting the too soon for green grass
actually in hiding and there for picking
up with fingers into small basket
for the purpose of collection
hindered by lack of height and/or
fascination with shape or color or seams
taller children who carry as much
as they grasp drop eggs for our child
to find accomplished with some help
namely our fingers pointing in their
general adjacent to giant dandelion direction
Later car singing rear view mirror thumb
in mouth absorbing the day with bubbles
and stones and small soccer ball squeals
at the point of needing sleep through side A
of Godspell Off-Broadway Recording
that carried me through childhood first
theatre production witnessed when I was
almost twice child’s age now barely four
now forty years later how will I explain
daddy cannot make it through side A
without sympathetic sobbing at the sound
of soul vibrato intoning gratefulness
all good gifts around us are sent from heaven above
then thank you lord thank you lord for all your love
How then the feeling of remembering my
father’s fall almost one year ago this the first
year such that less understanding as time
runs out he would play the red cassette
in the car too loud probably to hear anything
else he said he loved listening to it to me
why do some moments feel new while others
seem always to have happened we offered
our child a new book at bedtime she kept
turning to the page where the children hunted
eggs she found each one as well as naming
everything in sight there a tree a birdhouse
a sheep a line of triangles around the farmhouse
everywhere grass everywhere something growing
-
Growing Teeth
If nothing else
let this day be remembered
for upon the uncomfortable
fitfulness of nap time
interrupted by cries
irresistible to human ears
attached to my cranium
I picked up the child
who let me become acquainted
for an hour or so with
the personification of sleep
which I in my infinite wisdom
accepted as did the cat
who insisted on joining us on my lap
-
OctPoWriMo 23
Trying to make space
for all the gigabytes
on their way
to a new device
I started deleting
media I thought were only
cached in an instance
but lived in the cloud
turns out they weren’t
and for a brief moment
they were irreplaceable
until I remembered to open
another folder where my past
self already saved them
-
OctPoWriMo 16
Everything my daughter
needs to know
about the father
I would like to be
might be summarized
in the verse or two
of the hymn I could not sing
with her in my arms
stunned into teary silence
not by the words
but at the melody
included in the service
the day her parents found
hope in each other’s dreams
-
AugPoWriMo 31
Not sure if we’ve broken past the breaking
point of no return random papers strewn
on gaudy carpet not declassified
except by an edict after the fact
no one recognized the face of time framed
for boxes to coexist within made
impermanent the glimmer of hope felt
polls too temporary to be trusted
in this rust belt cafe the crudité
was never really on the menu though
that’s before you consider the tequila
why not take less of what they are drinking
fascists qualified by prefix semi
could a new era happen already?
-
AugPoWriMo 18
That feeling when you realize
the music that formed you
in your formative years was
nearly some forty years ago now
thanks to hours of some songs
played on a radio not in your town
but in your former hometown
which formed you and you haven’t found
a fitting replacement you make sure
your phone is still streaming said
music as you walk in the door and dance
with your almost four month old
hold me now in your eyes hands and feet
the light the heat I am complete
-
AugPoWriMo 10
To think that these pictures
capture the same creature
sleeping in the other room
at a recent previously
appointed point in time
aging apparently at the same rate
as these tired maybe middle aged
faces growing younger all the time
a match for that slight inflection
the world not quite as it was
when you arrived even better
now we know how much improved
it will be having you in it
evidence our souls met your spirit
-
JulyPoWriMo 16
How much easier
to remember
your preverbal
existence
how else recognize
that cooing from
sights and sounds
familiar unknown
best respond with
your own
who knows how
to react instinct
if not built in then
part of the line
-
JulyPoWriMo 13
I subscribe
to the scientific belief
that the instrument
beaming back images
with newly discovered
billion year old clarity
are only reflecting
the conditions
that made it possible
for me to take a snap
to capture the cat
stretching goodnight
at your general direction
in the bassinet
Joshua Keiter 