Tag: Sonnet

I could remember the first home I left
because it was the first house that I missed 
the constant feeling of being bereft 
knowing you own only what you resist 
how many friends are gone along the way
the paths you didn’t know that you would take 
memories are too flexible to stay 
in one place long enough for them to make 
a journey within not walking distance 
roads too easy for you alone to tread 
companions they make all the difference 
the crumbs you leave become your daily bread 
I pick you up each time we cannot meet
the closed circle a new friend may complete

When I hear the score to the musical 
I think of when I first listened to it 
on a library record player my 
first year of college it was not homework 
for I had no idea where home might be
I might have been avoiding my roommate 
(algorithms would have chosen better)
just a young kid I was with too long hair
wondering what the songs would sound like 
in a phase of life I had not known yet 
neither single nor yet getting married 
but following all the chords and the rhymes 
flowing so fast before they could arrive 
lacking company for being alive

The TV musical 
loses all perspective 
when the performers 
break into song 

and dance as if 
they cannot be bound 
to the aspect ratio 
of the screen 

this is how we change: 
carry the message 
from one dimension 
to another 

next thing you know 
the song is in your head

Songs from summers past 
rise suddenly to the surface 
though the days 
bear no resemblance 

except in the feeling 
of everything ending 
and nothing else yet 
starting to begin

if clocks still worked 
they would keep time 
with this in between season 
since its resonance lasts 

long beyond remembrance 
a minor key deliverance

Tree outside our front door 
is convinced it’s time
to change seasons hence 
the spattering of yellow leaves 
untended in the grass 
soon enough the tree will be bare 
and we will see from here to there 
again a condition of growing 
too accustomed to the heat 
wildfires burning on repeat 
dragging across the continent 
too late for us to repent 
world is overpopulated with leave
so burn and give us something to believe

Waking up is strange
unaccustomed to a familiar room 
simple to fall back asleep 
remembering occurrences 
that would not have a place 
were it not for this room 
and your place within it 
at some point before you left 
have you returned or is it a dream 
for the future to misinterpret 
as nostalgia for what never happened 
a home is a life not just lived in 
the habitual forgotten 
replaced by interruption for a time

The new phase is the same as the old phase 
one step forward and infinite steps back 
of course health is not the priority 
grandstand where you have no ground to stand on 
maybe human sacrifice is the norm 
all for the sake of gross entertainment 
ratings don’t matter so much as eyeballs 
gouged out and replaced with new QR codes 
linking to a 404 not found page 
new home of confidence in the system 
created dysfunction reality 
the fairness doctrine could not regulate 
so it was let go for the sake of lies 
we couldn’t even see with our own eyes

Anticipating rigor of travel 
is its own journey as evidenced by 
the still unpacked suitcase in the hallway 
holding forgotten remnants of the past 
distracted by random pictures we took 
of auspicious holidays returning 
every year the invention of clockwork 
reminds us of how long it’s been since then 
cannot count the moments stacked in between 
laying sideways out on the horizon 
anxieties arrive like taking off 
into a blue unknown onion unseen 
liminal spaces dither at the gate 
the was and the not yet will have to wait

There was a moment sitting in front of 
the TV with ninety five percent of
the planet also watching the same thing 
it seemed mass communication would solve 
all the world’s problems bring us together 
solve hunger by throwing money at it
the problem was we kept inventing more 
ways of massively communicating 
some did not think hunger was a problem
now I regard screens reasonably sure 
ninety five percent of the other screens 
could not even tune into this channel 
the one that nostalgia plays on repeat 
tiny fragments stay alone incomplete

Everything is on the verge of being 
so much more awful and normal right now
easy to neglect the headlines shouting 
each one is more important than the last 
when they are just the latest version of 
summer repeats the long running building 
collapse the casual insurrections 
sabotaging how people are counted 
the ones who took the wait and see approach 
seeing their way into the waiting room 
followed by the ER if they’re lucky 
ninety nine percent doing something wrong 
the silent majority full of shit 
the rest of us just getting back to it