Remember having
the energy inside you
to be this angry
-
JanPoWriMo 28
The word of the day
they are banning books again
as they always have
when they think they can
pretty easy way to start
a good reading list
-
JanPoWriMo 27
It’s so cold outside
I fell asleep on the couch
before the end of the show
every inch of skin
exposed to the elements
cracks open a scar
you didn’t know would
bleed quite as profusely while
washing your hands for
the seventeenth time
counting twenty seconds lasts
as long as it should
-
JanPoWriMo 26
Still not sure if
it feels right to
participate in what
some might construe
to be a frivolous
endeavor while
people are dying
at the rate of an eight
year long police action
every thirty one days
no wonder so many
are spending a few
minutes each day
determined to spell
a five letter word
knowing it is all
they will have to solve
in their lives for
the next twenty four
hours at least
-
JanPoWriMo 25
Amazed I went through the whole day
without thinking about what I dreamed
last night and yet just a little jostle
and I’m back somehow telling a story
on The Moth podcast about the snowstorm
in Seattle some thirty one years ago my mind
copy editing the perfect improvised script
as if the memory refined itself into prose
I can only recite unconsciously somewhere
it must be written as it happened pushing
the van on the way to the service project
packing bags of unbroken ramen for the hungry
my mom navigating the drive down the hill
the sand providing no traction for cars
abandoned on the interstate until the news
reminded people to pick them up I spent
the week before vacation off from school
round about the time the floating highway
sank because part of it actually floated
maybe memory is just below the surface
in perfect prose recited for the audience
always waiting for the unconscious
to make itself known before it is forgotten
written on the universe to uncover another day
-
JanPoWriMo 24
What would it mean for
your final destination
to be a million
miles away from here
only to glance in wonder
at points in the sky
heretofore unseen
that reveal the creation
of light in itself
might the journey be worth it
-
JanPoWriMo 22
Cold sun makes the house
slightly warmer as the heat
keeps kicking over
Breathing open mouth
cough rings out this dry weather
turning life brittle
Return to the house
cats question our choice of walk
over shaft of light
-
JanPoWriMo 21
What will happen when we wake
from this long interregnum
surprised that all the familiar faces
we thought would greet us
trailing their creations from
the other side have been leaving us
with suspended acceleration
whole swaths of cultural production
if not removed then moved by
their sudden reconfiguration
occupying the territory of loss
surveying an expanse so wide
and overgrown the little shoots
springing from the ground
leave us to listen without a sound
the world waiting still in the past
grows to face us faceless wondering
where we were looking so young
for what grew up alongside us
and passed like a memory outgrown
all things must pass on their way home
-
JanPoWriMo 20
Why count weather
that never comes
predictions are not
expectations
just watch the pavement
getting damper
and then drier then
freeze until impassable
minds don’t change
overnight sometimes
it takes a vote
gone wrong to get
out the word
loss is not a given
numbers are not
in your favor
one hundred percent
chance against
obstruction
surviving another day
Joshua Keiter 