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
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
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?
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
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
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
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
Running out of time
before getting to know you
not sure what to do
build some furniture
maybe while wondering who
you will be with us
how eager you are
to take a first breath out here
and make us breathless
questioning no doubt
who we thought we were without
your breathing with us
turning inside out
what we thought we were about
Everybody seems to be rushing back
to bad habits that made society
so unlivable for so very long
applaud proliferation of spittle
in tightest quarters imaginable
even those who would overthrow the state
have a chance to win it all in midterms
what makes us incapable of taking
the evidence before us and making
reasonable decisions like shaking
a plague to its knees by keeping distance
it wasn’t so unpleasant to fabric
our faces screaming inside of our hearts
togetherness keeps us a world apart
There might be time to know where the time goes
likely it will not be in this lifetime
too many minutes to accumulate
preceded by hours decades months days years
seconds are the only response to sweets
worth taking into account or measure
abundance of molecules on the way
to their dissolution insoluble
energy neither created destroyed
by looking what might be the other way
universe ever expands to a point
in the distant past shared distinct by all
a spark the only light a burning flame
continues to kindle forgets its name
Joshua Keiter