Such a day all day
reading paywalled articles
that I will pay for
sophisticated
ways of saying not saying
money oil is more
important than lives
who have no choice but to live
their pockets full of
sunflower seeds hope
it becomes impossible
to live and to breathe
-
FebPoWriMo 25
-
FebPoWriMo 24
It rained all day
not torrentially but
the kind that feels
like tiny daggers
overwhelming
all surfaces with
cold steel persistence
precipitation as
a form of fallout
the only weather
extant in the inevitable
nuclear winter
a generation had
no chance to fear
now can’t help if
they have empathy
to imagine touching
in some form their skin
-
FebPoWriMo 23
World hurling itself
back to normal much faster
the reasons for war
inexplicable
just like all the other ones
live long enough and
you see another
when will injustice become
a brief and just peace
keeping to ourselves alone
-
FebPoWriMo 22
Too many tunes
telling time tepidly
terrible transmission
turning up the telly
to retrieve tumescence
to tell the truth it’s
all too much to take
forwards or backwards
even upside down
little significance
birds shitting on
tempered glass stained
they tweet two two zero
two two zero two two
-
FebPoWriMo 20
Walking a light load
of trash to the corner
the yellow light
in the house window
and the light in
the house beside it
evidence of things
being what they are
-
FebPoWriMo 19
How could anyone
who learned what we learned
two years ago about
how air circulates with
the requisite diagrams
want to go maskless
ever again the simple
answer is they never learned
-
FebPoWriMo 18
You haven’t really
moved in until
you find a box
over a year later
no one remembers
packing much less
what was inside
and finding a spot
for every item
except maybe
the paper clips
at the bottom
-
FebPoWriMo 17
Now that everyone agrees it is time
to return to normal by which they mean
an increasing number of traumatic
events we could not have foreseen without
reference to how long we were upset
things have not returned to what we wanted
to perceive as acceptably normal
which might have included crying at work
in bathrooms because we could not take it
anymore then suddenly no one could
and increasingly fewer of us will
because they haven’t noticed the numbers
keep increasing or keep staying the same
life is just a number without a name
-
FebPoWriMo 16
Everyone has forgotten how to be
social says the guy on the radio
making pancakes for strangers in the park
the kind of story we should expect now
we seem to be in between Greek letters
accelerating the loosening of
restrictions almost faster than ever
because letting our masks down last time made
so much sense it lasted about a week
then we were in the biggest hole climbing
the tallest mountain at some point we gave
up counting like the numbers made no sense
at some point it will be everyone so
the indifferent make pancakes to go
Joshua Keiter 