Joshua Keiter

I take comfort that our carbon cousins
can take root in the smallest rock crevice 
molecules packed so tightly together 
even oxygen has no room to breathe 
seeds seek sight unseen slightest patch of ground
reminder that left untended the world 
would leave no room for anything but life 
as much as we carve earth to suit our deaths 
the blink that misses the river’s torrent 
to forge a new prospect of the pavement 
aspire to the plane of the parking lot 
living as if already trod over 
how much light to be as drift as the breeze 
sowing consciousness where none of us sees

Hearing about species declared extinct 
on a road that must disrupt habitats 
if not bifurcate part of one species 
from another part based on some red lines 
someone thought might keep people in their place
going the other direction I heard 
how democracy was lost arguing 
over small details allowing tyrants 
to barrel in taking advantage of 
the wasteland people saw all around them 
because nothing was ever accomplished 
they dithered until all hope had been lost 
the species songs mournfully echoing 
had not been heard in over twenty years

The thunder rolled all across this region 
at some point this afternoon not sure when 
but I heard it everybody heard it 
and felt it the way you feel something when
you have no idea what is going on 
but it fits in the basic scheme of things 
as vaguely boring apocalyptic 
as in the famous dog drinking coffee 
with flames all around saying this is fine 
which applies to every event these days 
we cannot explain but shrug our shoulders 
and go about our days as the rumble 
increases though we know someone out there 
has foresight no one else has to measure

The echoes fade faster than they used to
hard to believe the light that hits our eyes 
has been traveling for so many miles 
it has lost all hope of finding a home 
perhaps we are not meant to know ourselves 
better than anything we might have been 
if our skin were an exoskeleton 
would that make standing any easier 
the days are shorter and the days grow long 
leaving the nights lonely for their excess 
more space to dream weird unrecollected 
unless of course it was always like that
light finds its way in no matter how much 
we might like to think or believe it stops

Cut off like an arm a voice distracted
those bodies spirits souls sharing spaces 
singular staring at screens together 
blinking to lose a year and a half blue 
screens a blur existence diminished to 
one dimension livelihood a living 
languishing to wait to take a sort of 
flight out of body those souls together 
united in wearing a slight fabric 
to watch out for their neighbor laboring 
for breath to reach another note singing 
together by twos distance abating 
to live theatre means being alive 
halfway to sideways from the other side

How long until things get back to normal 
turns out it has been normal all along 
whenever two or more of you gather 
no one goes through this alone together 
the world as we know it might not be here 
in this most confusing phase of this phase 
problem is the problem can’t be defined
too much evidence to the contrary 
the two exit lanes are closed to traffic 
because there is too much traffic around 
gridlock is all there is to sustain us 
the bill won’t be passed because of reasons 
if food be music we have been starving
the world is burning while it goes dancing

Feeling we are in a holding pattern
circling over the distant recent past
hoping it never happened at least not 
as we experienced it at the time 
each trauma atrocity diminished 
by having seen it endless times before 
the definition of insanity 
anticipating something different
waiting out the clock to backtrack into 
the same a better future never seen 
willfully distracted to forgetting 
we are born each second we are alive 
how to start again knowing how it ends 
how to forget the moment it begins

Remembering where we were the last time 
they said the worst was behind us is not 
an impossible task more like the worst 
case scenario already having 
come to pass with a more rueful laughter 
why do they tempt fate with self fulfilling 
headlines more likely to be proven wrong 
with the next news cycle breaking a chain 
surely we have not reached the debt ceiling 
of deworming paste outpacing common 
sense does anybody really believe 
we are out of the woods overgrowing
us waiting for good news that never comes
there is still so much weeding to be done