The day that day began
with birthdays on TV
the novelty of teenagers
pushing eighty with candles
and cake in some back room
smiling for the camera
knowing time is a fiction
more than perhaps others
At night the call came that night
we went to the small room
for her things placing a cloth
over her face before walking
into the night staring at loss
shining back at us as stars
wherever spirit goes it is
carried by extinguished
This month has been six months
as the above now is eight years
my dad so still he smiled
we buried them together
my father and grandmother
at the oldest church we knew
keeping in the family structures
we hope to remain exist
We thought we would remember
we would remember only
every four years when they add
a day to keep the seasons in days
not even knowing what is today
we keep the score the same
-
Leap
-
Goodnight Shadows
Before she falls asleep she turns
back to objects within her grasp
meaning sight meaning saying
goodnight to the plates the cups
the peanut butter applesauce snacks
goodnight to the stairs to the room
where her books live in her fingertips
flipping pages faster than she or anyone can
read them meaning she looks for patterns
she looks for fireplaces lighting
the dark room the mittens the light
in the toy house she waits for more song
in the rocking chair at night she lifts
her head to sing along when your heart
is full of love spelling friend the alphabet
meaning special she leans back to see
the lines of streetlight through the blinds
she says goodnight shadows meaning
the reflections have a life she cannot miss
wishing a safe passage to the other side
guiding safely through the night meaning
the lights in the mind relating echoes
of life in the day however passing the dark
winter having arrived the light coming back
the snow raining down in the dawn
we thought we would never see it as such
the years without the glow in the heart
you cannot see even as they arrive
meaning we will see them again arise
meaning the light has no end you will see
again when there is nothing but light
goodnight shadows it’s time to say goodnight
-
Umbrella
The child has begun shouting
out when she recognizes
a word belongs to an object
she knows as if
her whole being was in service
to the articulation of
the thingness of the world
here—an umbrella
sometimes in picture form
on the side of a block
sometimes a walk
reveals them on porches
withdrawn into a shape
that shelters nothing
from no one no need
at the moment to cover
everything underneath
still she brings them
to our attention
her vocal cords opening
up the skeleton within
until our skin reveals
the circle we were always
going to be born into
on an ordinary stroll
through the woods
beside our home
just within sight
umbrella
umbrella
umbrella
-
Choked Up
Hard not to think of calling you
even far too late into the night
to commiserate an entire season
as leaves strewn upon a path
knowing neither of us know
quite what went wrong in the end
thankful you were there on the other
end of the line when they won
fifteen years ago now I have
to do the math you were 96
long past the point of saying
your longevity was down to
Faith Family and Phillies
you saw that team slowly then
quickly disintegrate too I remember
days after you died I watched
the first spring training game
in a fluorescent green haze myself
sick at the thought of mass death
no idea what became of that season
I could look it up but have no
appetite for that now I am
thinking of you marveling at
seeing phillies.com on the world
wide web for the first time
where you are now the whiz kids
must be rounding the bases
while I sit in the orange darkness
closing all my apps and waiting
for pitchers and catchers to report
-
Bananas
We have lost count of words
the toddler among us
gives voice to
sometimes with understanding
such as while watching
Mister Rogers introduce
a bowl of fruit she recognizes
apples say and bananas
of course she’s seen them
and enjoys them most
of the time when she is not
throwing them to the floor
small reminder we are out
and put them on the temporal
mental shopping list
small reminder my father
required a breakfast banana
with a sharp knife
to place coins into his
cereal bowl each morning
a ritual now past
I recall each time
I separate the toddler’s banana
into circles with a dull knife
surely her teeth reaching
into double digits could chew
a more rough hewn portion
split with bare hands
though uniformity satisfies
some elemental recognition
how we know what is good
for us through shapes
circles that round the plate
figured between thumb and
finger signifying okay
sometimes seen through eyes
and when it is time
to place what is given
within and without
O taste and see dear mouth
-
Sudden Forever
So many moments we don’t know
when
if they will be the last
the privilege of growing older
is the curse of knowing
some don’t
and not knowing them well
enough
to recognize the age
crinkling from a photograph
printed on former trees
for a time
waves on the ocean
become clouds
all the time
-
Sleep Song
My voice carried
by sound waves
quiet as possible
to ear of serene
child on the verge
of sleep in my arms
the loudest thing in
the universe right now
barely noticeable
to everything else
how this is evidence
for our existence
how arms resist slightly
descending to bed
clinging to say hold me
before relinquish
holding the notes
steady in her breath
all of being a song
we repeat silently
to ourselves in sleep
-
Now More Than Over
I guess this is just
the way it is now?
Yesterday the hottest
day yet ever?
Every holiday another
forgetting how
to ignore the headlines
hardly elaborated
about the latest
overnight shootings
sometimes in the city
of your birth?
Could the neighbors
hear it above
the sounds of fireworks
in the distance
next door oblivious
participants in
extending traumatic
responses some
may have no outlet
to understand
under the bed?
Eventually all that is
left once the lights
disintegrate as
the smoke dissipates
is air a little bit
harder to breathe
than it was yesterday
-
Trinity
There is a moment
more than one
when the child sees
the light through stained glass
a curtain lowered and raised
the strings vibrating
into empty space
the words reverberating
from the screen
to our lips a silent
recognition as if
obvious we are recreating
in some limited fashion
the domain from which
she has sprung to which
we are constantly returning
witness these peals
of laughter monologues
consisting of what might
become words
in the meantime
beaming at us
a reminder of
where we come from
Joshua Keiter 