Joshua Keiter

What if we have run
completely out
of novelty 

a world without war 
or hundred year floods 
or bodily autonomy 

a boiling frog 
only learns it is water 
with remnants of memory 

to know it might not 
have been this way 
driving into flood waters 

from the vantage of a basement

The first day of school 
photos in my feed 
will just not stop 

nor will I let them 
I insist on every flick 
of my wrist another 

half masked reveler 
in their chalkboard attire 
proclaiming their faith 

in attainable goals like 
moving back and forth 
between one room to 

the next and home again 
within the same circle 
of almost nearly friends 

sharing ideas and air 
not squares filled in 
by some faceless study 

of how shambolic this
whole enterprise became 
how we in our infinite 

wisdom lead lambs to 
laughter hoping in our 
second language classes

the s pronounced is silent

No one wants to live 
after the end of the story 
of a story with no ending 

much better to be 
in the middle of things 
where nothing much happens 

in expectation of when 
all the puzzle pieces fit 
into a much larger puzzle 

no one will ever take the time 
to find out if it really was 
part of the same picture 

we never get around to seeing 
having been bound to this 
corner of the universe 

collecting all these endings 
that for all we know 
never began to begin with

True friends:

Upon hearing the verse

For you shall go out in joy, 
and be led back in peace; 
the mountains and the hills before you 
shall burst into song, 
and all the trees of the field 
shall clap their hands.

You both clapped your hands.

The National Mall today
was mostly not empty 

as we weaved between 
museums searching for shade 

from the overbearing sun 
the partitions still in place 

a house that changed perspectives 
as you divided your attention

over the expanse of mown green 
too far to hold in the frame

visitors in identical shirts 
carrying signs with sayings 

that might save the republic 
if only we could follow them

Imagine arriving 
in a country 
as a refugee

having evacuated 
from a place that 
was no longer home 

and the first news story 
you hear is how  
many people will

soon be evicted

Change the risk calculus 
best of circumstances 
what constitutes safety 
host of cognitive biases 
yanked in either direction 
increased transmissibility 
gauging the safety of a situation 
unfortunately evolving 
no accurate denominator 
decreased vaccine effectiveness 
forgoing comes with its own dangers 
internal math so much trickier 
an abundance of caution
publish a shruggy emoji 
roller coaster of risk assessment 
periods of confusion are natural 
tired of self-abnegating 
continue to control whichever 
straightforward variables you can

How to know when
the past became the past 

if you think it might 
have happened that way 

you remember it like
it was yesterday 

even though you cannot 
recreate the impossible 

once passed it is gone 
take a look back and see 

the only point is now 
you gotta keep hanging on

An earthquake is appearing 
in some people’s memories 

a decade ago we expected 
random catastrophic events 

at least less frequently 
which is why some of us 

thought maybe a car backfired?
monuments still need repair

though the scaffolding
still there is just for show