Joshua Keiter

How do you know when 
the things you used to know are 
still waiting for you 

across a divide
against all odds you have crossed 
with uncertainty 

reserved for doing
nothing and doing it well
such that you survive 

having forgotten
how much you have lost losing 
all your perspective 

how to learn your lines 
practice your musical parts 
exist together 

performing in the same space

No one knew which lane 
they wanted their car to be
in on the highway 

and I am tired of
excusing misbehavior 
with pandemic or

ecological
collapse at least some of them 
used their turn signals 

I got off the road 
went shopping for groceries 
and drove to the house 

which was still on solid ground

What if the summer
never actually ends
and we are left with 

ever increasing 
temperatures with a dash 
of dust scattering 

the atmosphere with
what might have been alive when
there were none of us 

around to measure 
how much we were to mess up 
what does not belong

to us—instead view 
the sunset in dead pixels 
say the camera 

does not do justice

I like not seeing
people’s faces in the store 
a freeway where I 

am not tailgated
some kind of reassurance
this is not the end

of toleration
or rational behavior
that the world might be

worth getting back to
that when you spit in the wind
someone else’s spit 

does not reach you first

We will never know
if spectacular sunsets 
are the result of

looking in the past
too intently to expect 
particles drifting 

out of horizon 
to retrospect the future 
haze obscures the sun 

somewhere there is fire 
vanishing from there to here 
until immanent

the blaze outlasts us

Similar weather
three converge along the path 
say good morning twice 

so many alarms 
ringing through the neighborhood 
nobody knows why 

the planes seem louder 
not because it is quiet 
but we can hear them

Walking to the arts 
festival under a clear 
blue September sky 

each booth was filled with 
arts unique to each other 
some artists napping 

at their stations while 
passersby observed their work 
with curious eyes 

pencil strokes blown glass
enormous photographic 
landscapes and doorways 

miniature scales
almost too much to take in
worlds upon more worlds 

we noticed also
almost directly above 
airplanes were streaking 

from our vantage point 
we could not tell if they were
taking off or landing

Fed up with the past 
harbinger of the future 
rear view is side ways 

this would always be 
catastrophic in any
normal circumstance

enough with carrots
cluttering up the airwaves
just go with the sticks