Joshua Keiter

The fog finally broke today
You could feel it
Even though the clouds remained

A chill wind descended
As if the season itself
Deus ex machina’d to say

Time for a course correction
No one wants to apple pick
For pumpkin spice lattes

In 98 percent humidity
Here’s a dollop of sweater weather
Before you really have to hunker down

Come hygge or high water

Turns out no one knows when this will end
Turns out we won’t get closure
Turns out people keep doing the same things slightly further away if that
Turns out masks work
Turns out that first curve keeps not flattening
Turns out every part of the country is taking turns
Turns out a barrage of lies can somehow be called substantive and issue driven
Turns out the lines keep getting longer
Turns out we’re still waiting for a plan
Turns out records are made to be broken
Turns out the fog wakes us up every morning this is not a metaphor
Turns out the air has always been this stagnant
Turns out four years can take many decades off your life
Turns out the beginning keeps getting further away the closer it gets
Turns out it’s not worth opening the news app at 6am
Turns out the commercial media keeps unlearning the lessons it never learned
Turns out reality shows can be cancelled after all
Turns out we have no idea how this turns out

Let’s talk about what
We’re talking about—
Come on!

There is a setting
In the latest version
Of the app where

My photos reside
That lets you see them
Randomly assembled

The years like so many
Zeroes and ones
Shuffled into coherence

Taking up space
In the corner pocket
Of my home screen

I recommend turning on
This feature for the time being
To know the faces

You used to wear
Are just as recognizable
As the ones you wake up to

When nothing is certain
Not even the light
That may be captured

Long enough to be remembered

It must be fall
Since there’s a spring

In our steps
Despite the heaviness

All around us
The earth crackles

Sending former
Pieces of trees

From neat piles
Distressed by sound

Of leaf blowers
Or errant breezes

Until obliterated
Under our feet

On the way to the end
Of where we had been

For so long
Crushed

You could tell by the traffic patterns
That people were unaccustomed to driving
In this town on a golden autumn day
Down the busiest street looking for a parking spot
To join the line outside the courthouse
And place their ballots in the appropriate boxes
Or sign their name to say they exist in this area
Apparently they drove the length of the county
Because at the drop box closest to their residence
The lines were so long they could not join them
Meanwhile in another part of the republic
The court barely allowed these votes to be counted
But because of the continuing legislative session
Which is going on even if you don’t pay attention
It might soon have gone another way who knows
My spouse voted then we walked around the graveyard

The benefit of screens
In this day and age
Is seeing so many faces
At once in separate boxes
Until you understand
They are not distinct
Except in that they break
Light out from the darkness
See how the lilt of a voice
Arises from the green edge
To our attention shifting
All empathy and provision
Waiting to see what happens
From the tilt of a face
Separating consciousness
Out of the lifeless pixels
Suddenly brought to recognition
This is the medium we
Have at our hands
To bring our faces face to face
Seeing our life flash before
Our eyes and name in the corner
Passing for what we were
When we shared the same spaces
Now we are an ellipsis
Everyone signing on at once
Speaking over each other
Until distortion arrives at clarity
And despite everything
Going on outside the frame
Our departure is an arrival

This was a day you could feel
People were getting outside
Because they know time is running out
It was getting crowded on the paths
I kept my face down after smiling
From an appropriate distance
Even held my breath as they passed
In a future time I may choose to recall
There was no room between us
And our fellow travelers at all
Just a flow of movement forward
Sometimes turning back and finding
The same faces passing once again
Because we cannot walk the length
Of the lake every time we venture out
We only have small pockets in which
To live our brief lives taking in the air
While the whole circuit runs in its course
Whether we are there or not
We know it goes the whole way around
Sometimes we catch a glimpse
Of those who emerge from the other side
And as we are leaving we say hello neighbor

Maybe just the slightest edge of a memory
You only remember as a story you were told
Even though you were there as it was lived
And spoke the repeatable words for all to hear
Would be lost if not for the speaking
Here now on the occasion of so many gathered
Wanting to hear for the remembering
Of moments lived that might be lost
Though they could never be lost
They could only be held
Above our heads as these umbrellas
Slowly give way to walking as they must
Even if just one in front of the other
As if saying the same thing twice
Each story takes a lifetime to recollect
And we are not always there for the telling
Though someone who loves us very much is listening

Even as the pictures flicker
While the world stands at least as still
As a stationary whirlwind
Caught between the past and what never will be
The early darkness leads to light
Illuminated at the center of the universe
Which of course is everywhere
Except where you are
Which of course is everywhere
And even though the eyes will never know
Seeing themselves see each other
All of this is to say
Nothing will bring what was back
But this arresting moment at rest
To know the pictures hold a motion
Which is the light dancing for a moment
And is gone before you know it
Accept everywhere at once