Driving in the dark
Music proof of time passing
Tempos seem faster
Than you remember
As if lived in slow motion
Now there is less time
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SeptHaikuWriMo 4
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SeptPoWriMo 3
Whatever binds the frayed pieces apart
Whatever brings time to a running start
Whatever birds echo but do not sing
Whatever beliefs may poison or sting
Whatever belabored points unanswered
Whatever belongs to the hereafter
Whatever may be helping us stay sane
Whatever may punctuate the membrane
Whatever is lost has yet to be found
Whatever is stuck will not stick around
Whatever stories we tell in our sleep
Whatever systems we can’t bear to keep
Whatever will break before it will sore
Whatever it takes to show them the door
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SeptPoWriMo 2
Working with the public it is almost
Predictable as the worst behavior
Exhibited by our so-called leaders
Suddenly comes trickling down to others
Normal ordinary citizens who
Are following their so-called leaders lead
Without any actual evidence
But when responsible people model
Actions and science to keep us all safe
They think it was the end of liberty
I hate to break it to all of these folks
When a miracle cure arrives at last
If their leader says that they should take it
They already drank the kool-aid instead
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SeptPoWriMo 1
Today for all intents and purposes
Felt like it might be the first day of school
The library full of people looking
For places to sit and work all day long
At the same time so many of the jokes
Awkward enough to speak beneath our masks
Related to how we have no idea
How it could already be September
Since March still seems to be hanging around
The sense of panic and dread replacements
For earlier sense of panic and dread
We have all but forgotten as the days
Become shorter and the spooky season
Begins in earnest now it lasts all year
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AugPoWriMo 31
I have let go of old thoughts and journals
Although they occasionally appear
Scattered across hard drives and blinking eyes
To say this is who you thought you were then
But it was not who you were then which is
What I would like to delete although I
Cannot I am too much of a pack rat
That much hasn’t changed if I could go back
And prevent the things that caused so much pain
I guess there’s no choice since then I would have
All these photographs disappearing like
They were taken out of focus only
The blank ones remain undeveloped still
Taking up so much and so little space
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AugPoWriMo 30
Time is relative to measuring time
As if it were not merely a constant
Nothing is linear curved or straight lines
Balancing between two never fixed points
The road sign you left behind to get here
Already receding into the past
Like some future thing you forgot to do
The wheel in the sky interrupted by
The birth of the expanding universe
A reboot takes quite a bit of effort
Holding the power button down so long
So numb a finger pointing at the moon
As long as time insists on keeping us
We live forever if just for a day
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AugPoWriMo 29
Some worlds have not quite been created yet
That is why they need us to dream them true
Sitting in our homes or a theatre
That much more lonesome at the loss of you
All the characters you will not create
May not overshadow those whom you have
Spirit is more than destiny or fate
Or joy that those who knew you knew you gave
So much is silent and now quieter
It seems too much for us to persevere
Your example just might make us better
Though we can’t yet see past this cursed year
Wakanda forever—now about you
We are not ready to be without you
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AugPoWriMo 28
So much catastrophe we can foresee
And predict how little we know what will
Happen at any given time we don’t
Know if we will wake up in the morning
Or if we will fall asleep in the night
Sometimes our dreams give us a vision of
The past as we wish it might have happened
Others possess the unfortunate task
Of waking us from a sleep so soundly
We cannot tell the difference between
The drift and the stream endlessly obscured
By the life of what we know will one day
Come to pass unknown to the memory
Of us living the quintessence of dust
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AugPoWriMo 27
When in the course of these stupid events
It becomes necessary to behold
A tale told by an idiot who rents
An above ground bunker that has been sold
To a corrupt party that can’t govern
So complains about all of the bad stuff
They had more than enough chances to turn
Into legislation that’s good enough
To warrant a case to grant four more years
For ersatz fascism to flourish now
This kind of shit is superspreading here
We have to end this episode somehow
In politics we are more than a pawn
It begins by shouting GET OFF OUR LAWN
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AugPoWriMo 26
This moment may be unsurvivable
As the storm approaches its next landfall
Many different fronts encroach at once
Before you know what you should focus on
Another face appearing in the crowd
It is okay you should feel tired right now
Limit your intake of disturbing news
Until a creeping numbness overtakes
The notifications on your screen as
The anxiety you have has its own
Existential threat against the stillness
The moon peeking through a broken window
Still only half full as the horizon
Overtakes even all of the distance
Joshua Keiter 