Joshua Keiter

Extraordinary measures find us here
Defining an abundance of caution
As the positive absence of lacking
All sense of decorum thrown to the waves
There is no way out not even sideways
Or pretending numbers unreported
Somehow do not count like all the people
You pass by the street exchanging glances
Pretending to smile underneath your mask
Like saying we’re all in this together
Though the one percent will find a profit
On untested remedies out of reach
The spoils are growing along with the war
The bean counter does not tick anymore

If this year is an indication of
Time’s intractable elasticity
The past four months have easily lasted
As long as a whole administration
Meanwhile some of us are still stuck in March
Hoping to open the doors by Easter
Instead we’ve been drinking our lives away
Waiting for sourdough starters to arise
Ticking off human’s inhumanity
To other humans or maybe science
The fabric of our lives collecting spit
To throw it in other people’s faces
Maybe we don’t deserve the earth at all
The comet in the sky was made to fall

To those who say it’s cakes all the way down
I have no response—Diversionary
Tactics may bring us to the point where we
Don’t believe our own eyes seeing as how
Nothing is real except the government
Killing citizens by malign neglect
Or strapped on a table in the middle
Of the night when pandemic dreams arise
For those lucky enough to be sleeping
Dreams cutting into each other like cakes
Or kneeled upon in the street unbreathing
If death is a release for those who die
Where does that leave us who live out their dreams?
Baking another cake torn at the seams

When the rage becomes so overwhelming
There is no where to turn except some chords
And words declaimed with the simplicity
It seems unobtainable to muster
At least the artist could put the song out
Into the ether where all sound bites live
And find a way into your synapses
So you can mouth the words and feel the pulse
The unmasked faces will try to silence
As the days and months hours minutes seconds
Drag to an unresolvable future
As the wind turns in many directions
So many might hear at once the same sound
The death of silence spins the world around

Maybe we’ve discovered that we don’t need
To travel as much as we did before
At least not in our physical bodies
Because I travel to the precincts of
My childhood at least as much as I did
On business trips to conferences that
Did nothing to improve my networking
Skills as you can tell I’m all alone here
Dreaming incessant dreams unremembered
That move at least a million miles an hour
Forgotten houses and acquaintances
Populating each unwaking moment
Like the pandemic wasn’t happening
How close they are to each other and me

This could have been over by now this could
Have been over by now this could have been
Over by now this could have been over
By now this could have been over by now
If we had only followed the advice
Of the post in your feed which one was it
Scroll back a little ways now stop right there
No that wasn’t it but it’s kinda close
The one where the guy coughed into his hand
To make a point and then he coughed again
Only this time it was for real and now
No one listens because we are humans
Which by definition means we’re awful
Yet still this could have been over by now

The punctuation of this pandemic
Now passes for uninterrupted sleep
Soon numbers themselves won’t make sense without
Counting the numbers we have not counted
Like who gets to return to a normal
Resembling the normal they had before
Who can ride out the storm without riding
Into an abyss we have not seen yet
God does not have enough hands to hold them
Microscopic anti-creatures reside
Everywhere we dare not care but to look
Least of all where the seat of power drifts
Into an endless ellipsis sinking
Further out of reach not even blinking

Before we consider the opening
Of schools this summer to prevent disease
Let’s pretend it’s gone away far away
So far there is no way this flex schedule
Could exacerbate the spread of knowledge
To the point where we may inconvenience
The production of human capital
To maintain deliberate status quo
Which is to starve adjuncts of a living
(And in our worldview you all are adjuncts)
While we protect our precious endowments
From falling into real social reform
By this your sacrifice will be made clear
No child left behind—for maybe this year

You would be forgiven for thinking that
We are living in a burning building
Because we are but that’s not what keeps me
Doom scrolling like my life depends on it
No what really has been getting my goat:
The bots have invaded the library
Now we can’t announce you must wear a mask
For mutual safety without complaints
From unverified accounts in numbers
We are unlikely to ever welcome
Indoors asking for help with their browser
Just point them to this site where I have learned
Everything I need to know at this time:
To ride this ride please scream inside your heart

Museums are already deciding
Which artifacts should tell the story of
Our particular pandemic season
Masks, closed signs, social distance directions
Less apparent are thousands of stories
That will go untold, that hold little sway
Over even under-distracted globes
Will a visible nose above a cloth
Or spittle dripping down forbidden chins
Be represented in some tangible
Fashion other than the anxiety
That keeps bodies twitching every morning
Or resists sleep each evening with a draft
That retains thoughts only until they pass?