Admitting I could never understand
The language claiming God victorious
The suffering of neighbors was not planned
To glorify what is inglorious
We love so much we have to count as loss
Appearing there before us like a dream
Our ship is dashed before the storm can toss
Us on the shore where shards of darkness gleam
Though memory remains ephemeral
Our bodies light and carbon captured still
The soul a drop of water flows withal
Who walk in ways of yet unraptured will
The victory: existence as it’s known
Is now and always will have been our home
Tag: Sonnet
-
OctPoWriMo 11
-
AugPoWriMo 30
Time is relative to measuring time
As if it were not merely a constant
Nothing is linear curved or straight lines
Balancing between two never fixed points
The road sign you left behind to get here
Already receding into the past
Like some future thing you forgot to do
The wheel in the sky interrupted by
The birth of the expanding universe
A reboot takes quite a bit of effort
Holding the power button down so long
So numb a finger pointing at the moon
As long as time insists on keeping us
We live forever if just for a day
-
AugPoWriMo 29
Some worlds have not quite been created yet
That is why they need us to dream them true
Sitting in our homes or a theatre
That much more lonesome at the loss of you
All the characters you will not create
May not overshadow those whom you have
Spirit is more than destiny or fate
Or joy that those who knew you knew you gave
So much is silent and now quieter
It seems too much for us to persevere
Your example just might make us better
Though we can’t yet see past this cursed year
Wakanda forever—now about you
We are not ready to be without you
-
AugPoWriMo 28
So much catastrophe we can foresee
And predict how little we know what will
Happen at any given time we don’t
Know if we will wake up in the morning
Or if we will fall asleep in the night
Sometimes our dreams give us a vision of
The past as we wish it might have happened
Others possess the unfortunate task
Of waking us from a sleep so soundly
We cannot tell the difference between
The drift and the stream endlessly obscured
By the life of what we know will one day
Come to pass unknown to the memory
Of us living the quintessence of dust
-
AugPoWriMo 27
When in the course of these stupid events
It becomes necessary to behold
A tale told by an idiot who rents
An above ground bunker that has been sold
To a corrupt party that can’t govern
So complains about all of the bad stuff
They had more than enough chances to turn
Into legislation that’s good enough
To warrant a case to grant four more years
For ersatz fascism to flourish now
This kind of shit is superspreading here
We have to end this episode somehow
In politics we are more than a pawn
It begins by shouting GET OFF OUR LAWN
-
AugPoWriMo 26
This moment may be unsurvivable
As the storm approaches its next landfall
Many different fronts encroach at once
Before you know what you should focus on
Another face appearing in the crowd
It is okay you should feel tired right now
Limit your intake of disturbing news
Until a creeping numbness overtakes
The notifications on your screen as
The anxiety you have has its own
Existential threat against the stillness
The moon peeking through a broken window
Still only half full as the horizon
Overtakes even all of the distance
-
AugPoWriMo 25
We are learning loss more with every day
Without knowing what we might be losing
We could imagine the things people say
Life and death irretrievably fusing
Into a journey no one wants to take
And whose stories even carefully told
Diminished by those in power as fake
Our feelings buried deep beneath the fold
Until they’re trotted out to score some points
Reminding us to them it’s all a game
Even the hunger we feel in our joints
For some kind of justice someone to blame
Leads us to one obvious conclusion
Methinks they doth protest no collusion
-
AugPoWriMo 24
Running out of steam as the summer ends
Burning the candle if it breaks or bends
The sun is too hot to walk on the street
So you stare out of windows on repeat
The flickering flame on the TV set
Has nothing to say you haven’t heard yet
Just sip on your cup and say that it’s fine
It must be their fault since it isn’t mine
They just announced there’s a miracle cure
You give them your blood if they call it pure
Pay no attention as the shots ring out
Vindicating what protests bring about
Say their names while you live say them again
Sadly this season does not have an end
-
AugPoWriMo 23
I don’t know how long it will take to heal
Scars or moments we would rather forget
Time is all we have to borrow or steal
Ourselves against rising tides of regret
The past is a country we can’t visit
The future a house in need of repair
Pieces scattered into a composite
Of wholeness for which we cannot prepare
No one has a plan or waits to be born
Into a world that does not yet exist
Our thoughts coalesce while taking a form
That shadows still do their best to resist
The darkness will have no choice but to give
Life to the light by which we grieve to live
-
AugPoWriMo 22
The continued apocalypse requires
An increasing level of resilience
Found to be anathema to humans
If not extrinsic to corporations
Content to go on selling our feelings
Back to us for profit we’ll never see
As long as we can make the pie higher
For someone we thank you for your service
You who are the true heroes among us
Achieving what we never would ourselves
For we poured concrete into our bunkers
Long before toilet paper left our shelves
A week of hope on TV can’t replace
Cynicism keeping us in our place
Joshua Keiter 