Tag: Sonnet

Remember feeling
nostalgic for the early 
days of the pandemic 

when lack of necessities 
meant we were staying 
closest to those who 

needed us when did we 
feel it necessary to yearn 
for congregating in large

indiscriminate numbers
for imaginary reasons 
it seemed the best

we could hope for was 
limited casualties

Could not remember 
the last time I had to be 
at tech rehearsal 
or anything else 

before nine in the morning 
the windows and grass 
were covered in frost 
as the sun struggled to rise 

why bother changing clocks 
just keep different hours 
hibernate if you can
let the world run itself 

into a new ground as if 
it knew what it was doing

The traffic restores a sense that we are
doomed already destined by our actions 
to travel in a circle endlessly 
the same distances we went yesterday 
and will again tomorrow not today 
it does not exist only a concept 
never attained except by emptying 
all thought and emotion to the flux of 
our incapacity to imagine 
any alternate routes that would bring us 
outside of this noisy impatient loop 
a beltway if you will bloated by time 
until filibustered it collapses 
stands stock still while the rest of them passes

How many stories will we remember 
when there is finally no one to tell them 
it may seem like you hear them forever 
but they have always happened in the past 
the future is persistently untold 
and hair falls out before it gets too old 
the distant sound outside just keeps ringing 
at this late hour what could they be bringing 
to bear upon the earth in solid air 
the ground gives way to what was never there
memory is imperfect so it lasts 
without beginnings there can be no end 
who is there to whisper and to listen 
what is lost and found is only missing

In last night’s dream I was responsible 
for driving my mum-mum to the airport 
to return to her dream home of Oakland
at the close of my father’s church service 
I knew the dream could have only happened
in the past but it was happening now 
jump cut to a small cottage growing dark 
I stepped out the screen door to see the sky
lit by an eclipse of two circling planets 
soon the entire dome was filled with spinning 
globes and stars I snapped pictures to capture 
the magnificence then the earth fell down 
to the ground as expected then it rose 
again the light in the sky only grows

At some point in the fall your dreams become 
far more vivid than your waking moments 
most likely a quality of the light 
or lack thereof therefore I shall record 
my dreams as I recall them the next night 
when they seem to become more vivid still 
as they are soon likely to be resumed 
last night I had two dreams that might have spanned 
the entire length of sleep were it not for 
the fact they contended with another 
the first was vaguely apocalyptic 
call its images anonymous Bosch 
in the second I was riding a bike 
and then I let the air out of the tires

Slipping into a kind of exhausted 
routine not unlike the one you did not 
miss when you had the time to do nothing 
means there is less time to complain how much
you wish everyone who has a home would 
just stay there not only to rid the world 
of pathogens but maybe take some time 
to figure out if you should contribute 
to the growing gridlock which is a fact
of life as it was and probably will 
be for an as yet undetermined time 
at this rate non renewable fuels will 
be exhausted before we figure out 
what else there is to burn on our way out

The people talking on the radio 
said something about how moving through space 
or learning new things takes more energy 
than anything else could be the reason 
why my dreams are stuck on things I have done 
but no longer do anymore last night 
at the library I was put in charge 
of sorting through the pile of donations 
turns out they were all mine I packed them up 
and was pleased to find a wooden bookcase 
underneath that would hold all the books well 
so that was mine too this was all I did 
all day long in the dream night library 
I woke up not wanting to wake up yet

Without any warning sorry something 
went wrong every acquaintance you forgot 
you had to spend your formative years with 
we’re working on it and we’ll get it fixed
as soon as we can your current network 
of close colleagues and allies tightly knit 
unloosed to face the middle of the day 
without a common language DNS 
failure such that we’ve never seen before 
go back where the cache displays memories 
all you had time to click upon today 
as silence descends misinformation 
lost the main home it has to propagate 
what’s on your mind? nothing much a blank slate