Joshua Keiter

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

An Uber or some such vehicle
dropped off a refugee family 
with child luggage and toys
outside of my office today
they waited there
in the breeze which seemed
a little warmer than normal
but probably too cold for them
while the agency held 
an all staff meeting
in the other building
they looked cold so a member 
invited them inside 
until the meeting was over 
which I determined by asking 
a worker going back inside 
the family headed out 
and waited there a little longer 
the child riding a small bike
I asked if they spoke to someone
to make sure they were looked after
they said they had
when I remembered to look outside
again a few minutes later 
they and their things had removed
to a secure location inside 
to stay warm and begin
with any luck a new life 
in a foreign country

A not insignificant swath 
of my consciousness 
convinced itself the world
was already ending in 2016

with deep fakes being 
interviewed on the news 
stick figures on social media
telling you to be like them

the sickness of conspiracy
threading into a needle
ticking towards itself
into oblivion 

after the fog cleared 
I told myself it was not
the darkest timeline
I neglected to intimate

the seeds of delusion
were still everywhere 
hacking into brains
without abandon

warfare masquerading as
meddling interference
now the bombs are falling
and the truckers convoy

we are at the point of needing
ammunition not a ride