The cat in the storm underneath the chair
pressure of the moment bringing comfort
in this out of the ordinary space
not quite hidden nor out of sight neither
waiting here until conditions improve
fog on the windows inhibit bird views
sound shudders thick on the wooden grain floor
let the other cat play himself a fool
traversing the stairs like he owns the joint
four legs square with my skeptical world view
if you cannot see me I can’t see you
my invisibility is the point
storms do not abate themselves with our will
if we don’t hide do we know who else will?
Tag: Sonnet
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JunePoWriMo 21
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JunePoWriMo 20
Day gets as long as it’s going to be
cats find a new box to hide their toys in
the fear of missing out while everyone
is out may be real now staying at home
is the variant to worry about
the in person option now the default
there’s no going back to traffic light signs
as phases of what we should not do now
that we’re open nothing’s going to close
the open ended problems discovered
by taking time to pause and to reflect
will have to remain unsolved as we go
from one crowded arena to the next
to show up—what the next virus expects
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JunePoWriMo 19
History is always showing up late
taking credit for events long since past
only to achieve its significance
in retrospect and even then fading
into some long awaited reckoning
indefinitely deferred by actors
still taking up the limelight on the stage
shrinking overripe strange fruit in the sun
racing to criticize other theories
that might displace their mediocrity
with the merit of recording the facts
every historian already knows
structures constitute the only country
we’ve ever known and it’s not even past
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JunePoWriMo 5
Unread books placed carefully in boxes
moved and removed from house to house so long
I forget who I thought I would be when
these books transformed from pages on a shelf
to synapses renewed from consciousness
to consciousness proving books are magic
are words meant only to be potential
dear reader all apologies are due
I still do not know who you were back then
thumbing recklessly through the alphabet
knowing unfixed syntax is what is left
between thought & expression lies a lifetime
unloose the doorjambs from their enjambment
I is an other book I never rent
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JunePoWriMo 2
Last night I had no dreams to remember
I only woke up a few hours too soon
with the anxiety of fifteen months
weighing down on my chest a sudden shock
accumulated irretrievable
time a physical fact preventing sleep
as it has so much over these long nights
numbers that once spoken could not be saved
seasons still perpetually delayed
hanging in the darkness heavy ether
moments lost now repeating their losses
ouroboros suffers from hunger pangs
I returned to sleep that would not suffice
to dissipate undefined sacrifice
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MayPoWriMo 28
Lifting restrictions kept normal in check
now normal is suddenly coming back
with a vengeance witness democracy
dying without supermajority
will we ever know what the lab unleashed
or behave like citizens of the world
better crowd already crowded spaces
so that species waiting seventeen years
remain submerged under concrete we paved
to get from point a to point b faster
or build bigger houses on smaller plots
of land and stories wasting our treasure
on keeping up with neighbors never met
normal: a masked face we cannot forget
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MayPoWriMo 27
Tonight I choose to remember the me
who almost thirty years ago stayed up
all night as the weather turned to summer
writing songs ten at a time on loose leaf
paper the tunes only known to my mind
at the time if I saw them now I’m sure
I could sing them sometimes even the words
come back to my senses as I’m loading
the dishwasher thinking of what I will
write this night before I fall sound asleep
those songs still exist somewhere on paper
waiting in their way singing to be sung
the pencil faded but still legible
places I left myself incredible
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MarPoWriMo 24
Somehow the frustration
Of the pre post pandemic
Has usurped the lugubrious
Hyper anxiety of boredom
From wondering where on earth
We could get toilet paper
To navigating inscrutable websites
For a shot of science in the arm
From realizing a slight pause could
Reevaluate every human endeavor
To understanding courts still bypass
The right to avoid AR rifles at King Soopers
Basically the world still sucks
Why are we so eager to restart it as is
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MarPoWriMo 8
History repeats not in the same way
But similar to a rhyming couplet
Never to be resolved decades apart
Just when you think you know the whole story
Revelation peeks behind the curtain
Unexpectedly anticipated
By everyone paying attention to
Intersectional substantiation
Did you really think these legacies would
Be resolved with a sermon or a song
Or that codependent cacophony
Of confirmed media institutions
Simply go along with things as they are
Better to leave to get away and far
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MarPoWriMo 7
Strange to inhabit thoughts as they arose
Twenty years ago on the radio
In the car moving into the future
Have I not listened to this song before
Not in this context which is my age now
Perhaps the age this song was written for
When there is less time to look forward to
Than accounting the ways it has been lived
Which way led to this wayward distraction
The closest distance between there and here
Immediate to this situation
How could these instruments play my feelings
Or construct them as my reality
When I did not know they would play along
Joshua Keiter 