Joshua Keiter

In the dream
of course
there is a kitten 

sitting of course
in a container 
of donut holes 

and looking again 
all the donut holes 
are puppies of course

stretching out 
and yawning just like 
donut holes do 

and then we leave 
the grocery store 
in a helicopter

of course which 
pitches wildly
to one side 

before veering 
to the other side 
then descending 

without landing
we just hover there 
in the dream of course

Facile to say
the light is in 
not of

the darkness
thank goodness
it never goes out

No one knows the moment 
the present passes 
reluctantly into history 

how friends from a previous 
lifetime knock on the door
to compare trajectories 

the sound of time not 
a dull left handed thud but
the right flowing in melody 

pieces of a hat pointing to forever

Looking through old photos
in the envelopes 
with the negatives 
on a plastic cartridge 
one must have used on a carousel 
purchased separately 
(we never did)
you see yourself
looking at you in the future 
which is right now 
and play the time game 
as dinner approaches 
and the box gets put away 
the photos you were looking at
were taken when your parents 
are the age you are now
and sometime from now there will be 
photos in another box of
someone who has not yet arrived 
which is right now
somewhere they will see themselves 
and recognize the smile

The Christmas cicada
stands sentinel in 
the still green grass 

illuminated by memory 
of its billion relations 
succumbing to summer’s

blinding white noise 
heat of seventeen years 
subterranean gestation 

in the bleak silent night 
red eyes loom distant
crunch of fallen leaves 

a proper bed underneath
meanwhile a child 
running behind us 

seeking to see all the lights
might overtake us in fact
suddenly I hope so