Joshua Keiter

Of course once we 
removed our masks
we had no choice 
but to show our 
horror in the face
of what happens
when we let our
forgotten guard down
these skirmishes 
have been taking 
place in a part of 
the world we had
not remembered
was also in a way ours
to cover and to lose

Of course it was 
nineteen years ago
that the folly of war
was so obvious 
on this auspicious date
of three threes
I organized a reading
which I discovered
on the nascent internet 
going on all across
the country at least
of Lysistrata as a way
to protest what by 
that point was inevitable
that shock and awe
in the face of scant
evidence for weapons
of mass distraction 
could not be stopped
even biological imperatives
too slim a temptation 
for seeing what untapped
power unleashed could do
of course it was nineteen
years later some idiot 
full of sound and fury
thinks ineffectual weapons
directed at nuclear facilities
might accomplish something
then as now no one 
but the readers showed up
to the reading it was
heard nonetheless

A story I heard
one time in middle school

a belief that dust motes
are departed souls

seemed plausible 
that dust evolved 

to see each other 
standing apart together 

illuminated by light
from an unidentifiable source 

to place shaped ashes 
on shining foreheads

to recall what we have been
and where we are going

between everything
so small and everywhere