Let’s face it this holiday
is made for children
who else would relate to
bursting out of an empty tomb
shouting surprise at all
your friends and relations
and celebrating with a bit of
fecundity shaped chocolate
sprinkled in technicolor vessels
through a fluorescent lawn
an elaborate game of hide and seek
disguised as the cost of
what love can afford
who among us has not known
the void of the world before
we arrived fresh as a lily
and what it took to appear
as if we had always been there
but if you look closely enough
the transformation leaves scars
-
Easter Again
-
Revere Rhyme
Let the warning ride forth once more:
tyranny is at our doors
No this time it’s not the same
a whole lot of stupid perpetrated in our names
Somebody somewhere is spilling the tea
don’t need to genuflect or bend a knee
Just join a march or share the pictures
read a book or listen to the lecture
We the people can throw out a president
these truths will be and remain self-evident
250 years is kind of a good ride
still haven’t gotten to the other side
Hard to know what the future will bring
except in this country: no kings
-
Isaiah 53:8
“By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.”
I’m not one for drawing
parallels with a book that
may or may not be fictional
when you read the gospels
it sounds just like a news story
with testimonials to the truth
as if what had happened
seventy years in the past
could be verified by witnesses
just walking around remembering
but what are we to make
of the supposed savior
of the world being detained
and sent to suffer unimaginable
conditions without a charge
that could stand up to a day
in court and this fucking bullshit
defaming a man who for all we know
committed no crime that would
warrant this kind of treatment
without due process
maybe if we spread this story
as far as it is possible to go
we might write a new chapter
and verse that we can refer to
where one man unwittingly
brought about what it takes
to bring down the fascist regime
that would put a man on a tree
to make a kind of point
that all of us should be free
to cast the mighty down
from their throne by ourselves
-
Haiku Maundy
Raising a PK
means staying at church all day
some weeks of the year
Have I taught her well?
She ignores the services
when she’s having fun
brings toys when needed
takes them up for communion
tonight washing hands
she just joins the line
cheerfully knows something good
waits at the altar
mostly mommy smiles
We walked around the building
during some down time
call from the window
she knew it was mommy there
inside her office
she looked up calling
responding can you hear me
I’m too high to reach
we went back inside
to mommy’s office surprised
not to see herself
outside down below
just the place where she had been
and a bit later
would be there again
-
Flight Run
Running around
what could be a fountain
after a visit to the museum
finding a yellow airplane
inside just her size
the flights descend to land
she runs to keep up
at each turn it feels like
she surpasses them
a few moments later
another plane arrives
she keeps running
not even close to
out of breath
-
Parallel Play
One of us is learning
right from wrong
with imaginative media
telling stories that build
empathy and understanding
and self control
While the other is me
aware of too much doom
scrolling on my phone
wondering how it could be
so many missed the lessons
so many others strive to impart
-
Spring Break Haiku
The ice cream truck tune
wafted through open windows
time to put on pants
Way too hot outside
for a day like this in spring
child requires a coat
Playground friends running
around the steps to the slide
pretend space voyage
What should dinner be
a pickle and an orange
wash them down with milk
Child circles stuffed cat
singing made up songs about
the way that words sound
-
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John Legend
Hey that post-apocalyptic show is on again
the one we watched live seven years ago
and immediately became a tradition
wish I could say its mise-en-scène
did not so accurately reflect reality
as lived in the extra-theatrical world
some are trying to memory hole
the pandemic the show seemed to anticipate
what with the high definition spittle
and vague sense the world as we know it
had disintegrated some years in the past
seven approximately would be appropriate
little did we know the first term served
as but a preamble to unconstitutional acts
extrajudicial rendition now just a fact
surely we can’t have thought the center
would hold back then? All that seems certain
now is that if we are to be saved the savior
will be aloof and messy as blood and body sung
-
Benefit
One benefit of leaving
the TV idle until
the screensaver appears
flashing photos of days
gone by and our child
recognizing objects in them
and asking for them
is the same benefit of never
throwing anything away
to a point and retrieving them
from the basement
where the child never goes
anymore all of a sudden
is the same benefit of knowing
where you put everything
you never throw away
and finding those items
and more the child has not
played with for months
if not years can it be years
one benefit of years going by
is seeing the child somehow
knowing how to play with
those objects from the past
with developed dexterity
and fine motor movement
seeing play as if it were
new for the first time
-
Chance
Nostalgia for the past
has been replaced by
nostalgia for the future
that will obviously never be
who would have guessed
after ten years of this
we would still be waiting
for the end to end
a revolution maybe
could lead us out of it
if not for uncertainty
as to what comes next
so much doesn’t work
it keeps not working
in a kind of perfect
circle that stays broken
without the laughing
running to the door
after an unexpected day
away from home to work
seeing how human chances
get from point a to point b
through benign neglect
and required unremembering
I would be okay except
for the mirroring of myself
at the door closing behind
saying see you later
in precisely my cadence
she knows what will return
will be different in a kind
of same kind of way
these broken chances keep
happening
Joshua Keiter 