Maybe we’ve discovered that we don’t need
To travel as much as we did before
At least not in our physical bodies
Because I travel to the precincts of
My childhood at least as much as I did
On business trips to conferences that
Did nothing to improve my networking
Skills as you can tell I’m all alone here
Dreaming incessant dreams unremembered
That move at least a million miles an hour
Forgotten houses and acquaintances
Populating each unwaking moment
Like the pandemic wasn’t happening
How close they are to each other and me
Tag: Sonnet
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JulyPoWriMo 12
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JulyPoWriMo 11
This could have been over by now this could
Have been over by now this could have been
Over by now this could have been over
By now this could have been over by now
If we had only followed the advice
Of the post in your feed which one was it
Scroll back a little ways now stop right there
No that wasn’t it but it’s kinda close
The one where the guy coughed into his hand
To make a point and then he coughed again
Only this time it was for real and now
No one listens because we are humans
Which by definition means we’re awful
Yet still this could have been over by now
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JulyPoWriMo 10
The punctuation of this pandemic
Now passes for uninterrupted sleep
Soon numbers themselves won’t make sense without
Counting the numbers we have not counted
Like who gets to return to a normal
Resembling the normal they had before
Who can ride out the storm without riding
Into an abyss we have not seen yet
God does not have enough hands to hold them
Microscopic anti-creatures reside
Everywhere we dare not care but to look
Least of all where the seat of power drifts
Into an endless ellipsis sinking
Further out of reach not even blinking
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JulyPoWriMo 9
Before we consider the opening
Of schools this summer to prevent disease
Let’s pretend it’s gone away far away
So far there is no way this flex schedule
Could exacerbate the spread of knowledge
To the point where we may inconvenience
The production of human capital
To maintain deliberate status quo
Which is to starve adjuncts of a living
(And in our worldview you all are adjuncts)
While we protect our precious endowments
From falling into real social reform
By this your sacrifice will be made clear
No child left behind—for maybe this year
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JulyPoWriMo 8
You would be forgiven for thinking that
We are living in a burning building
Because we are but that’s not what keeps me
Doom scrolling like my life depends on it
No what really has been getting my goat:
The bots have invaded the library
Now we can’t announce you must wear a mask
For mutual safety without complaints
From unverified accounts in numbers
We are unlikely to ever welcome
Indoors asking for help with their browser
Just point them to this site where I have learned
Everything I need to know at this time:
To ride this ride please scream inside your heart
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JulyPoWriMo 7
Museums are already deciding
Which artifacts should tell the story of
Our particular pandemic season
Masks, closed signs, social distance directions
Less apparent are thousands of stories
That will go untold, that hold little sway
Over even under-distracted globes
Will a visible nose above a cloth
Or spittle dripping down forbidden chins
Be represented in some tangible
Fashion other than the anxiety
That keeps bodies twitching every morning
Or resists sleep each evening with a draft
That retains thoughts only until they pass?
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JulyPoWriMo 6
Somehow years passed appeared on my screen from
A journal that I used to write. Some years
The days seem as vivid as a dream but
Other words and details unfamiliar
As if I knew I would remember them
With as much clarity as it took to
Write them all as they happened. Were it not
For the recall of automated bytes
Those moments would be lost. I think they are
In that I do not think of them at all
Except for random happenstance alone
I’m not even blocking out the bad ones
It just happens that we are written on
Eternity which takes so very long
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JulyPoWriMo 5
It seems appropriate that so many
Symptoms are unaccounted for despite
So much time gone by doing nothing here
Waiting for some semblance of normalcy
To return as if we figured it out
A long time ago—you know the living
Together without killing each other
Seeing this world for the fragile fuckup
By all means it keeps appearing to be
Strange to feel a sense of nostalgia for
The future we saw when it all shut down
That is long gone along with good weather
We would rather be stuck outside burning
Than inside pretending to change our ways
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JulyPoWriMo 4
The sight of her eyes when the light breaks in
And everything gone before rises up
To meet the new road not already told
By voices dancing in light and shadow
Intermittent percussionists scratching
New verse into worn grooves flesh into text
Intersecting with the fourth wall gone out
Going through the unimaginable
The tragedy of silence is in spite
Of the words trapped inside this wooden frame
They branch out like family trees grown up
There is a double meaning to this name
She will be the one who tells your story
So as you live and die listen closely—
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JulyPoWriMo 3
Knowing that stories have been with us since
We gathered around the fire listening
To those who experienced what others
Could only just flickering dream about
The heights of what storytelling became
Can arrive here from four years in the past
Even four hundred years in the making
America then told by who we are
Now—more people will see it on these screens
Than could see it with strangers next to them
Sharing the same emotions in the dark
Which is other stories yet to be told
But somehow will be lived by more of us
Gathered to tell the story of tonight
Joshua Keiter 