Joshua Keiter

The traffic restores a sense that we are
doomed already destined by our actions 
to travel in a circle endlessly 
the same distances we went yesterday 
and will again tomorrow not today 
it does not exist only a concept 
never attained except by emptying 
all thought and emotion to the flux of 
our incapacity to imagine 
any alternate routes that would bring us 
outside of this noisy impatient loop 
a beltway if you will bloated by time 
until filibustered it collapses 
stands stock still while the rest of them passes

How many stories will we remember 
when there is finally no one to tell them 
it may seem like you hear them forever 
but they have always happened in the past 
the future is persistently untold 
and hair falls out before it gets too old 
the distant sound outside just keeps ringing 
at this late hour what could they be bringing 
to bear upon the earth in solid air 
the ground gives way to what was never there
memory is imperfect so it lasts 
without beginnings there can be no end 
who is there to whisper and to listen 
what is lost and found is only missing

In last night’s dream I was responsible 
for driving my mum-mum to the airport 
to return to her dream home of Oakland
at the close of my father’s church service 
I knew the dream could have only happened
in the past but it was happening now 
jump cut to a small cottage growing dark 
I stepped out the screen door to see the sky
lit by an eclipse of two circling planets 
soon the entire dome was filled with spinning 
globes and stars I snapped pictures to capture 
the magnificence then the earth fell down 
to the ground as expected then it rose 
again the light in the sky only grows