Joshua Keiter

Our human capital stock is ready to go back to work

Our human sacrificial virgin is ready to ascend the volcano

Our human critical thought is ready to be persuaded in 256 characters

Our human sound bites are ready to be expurgated from the record

Our human physical faces are ready to wear a mask already

Our human education facilitators are ready to do whatever their associate vice assistant to the dean says

Our human essential workforce is ready for a break from your entitled outbursts FFS

Our human content creators are ready to go viral for exposure

Our human respiratory system is ready to get choked by droplets and knees

I cannot remember the stories
that should be memorialized today
because they were not told to me

However I hold in place of
an experience too horrific to verbalize
the firmest handshake anyone has given

It was a way of saying if gestures
could tell the stories of a lifetime
I survived what they put us through

Now you’re alive here before me
and this is the most important thing
I can ever do to remind you

the things I will not recall to say
they cannot take everything away

Who among us
can remember
the last time

the front page
was filled
with a list

of names

These days
it’s getting harder

as if
it wasn’t already

nearly
impossible to tell

real life
from a dream or

a long
forgotten past so

vivid
it still tastes raw

like layers
of an onion coming

apart
until you don’t know what

is still
good enough to eat

but with
just barely the tiniest bit of

pruning
so much in fact the scars

still show
anything you have to offer is

enough
is good is here is home

Webinar Survey

I fear returning
to work

before democracy
itself

runs out of time
and breath

and we are bereaved
left

to face our neighbors
not all yet

knowing they would
spit on us

just because they
could

and graffitied vans
emblazoned

with ‘don’t believe the virus’
and ‘hoax’

drive off to places
unknown

spreading their germs
before we

get a chance to cross
the street

Because all art is quite useless
I spend my days petting cats
Walking the neighborhood blindfolded
Smiling at everyone from a safe distance
Staring at that thing on my face in the mirror
Stretching the ends way beyond the means
Listening to guitar chords through the window
Practicing my doing nothing routine
Questioning why there isn’t universal basic income
Reading too many articles on the same thing
Watching the same TV shows because structure
Calling the people I would normally call anyway
Thinking about the people I haven’t called lately
Knowing some people aren’t okay
Believing the universe loves them anyway
Counting to ten on my fingers
Breathing to infinity for a moment
Wondering if maybe we’ll stay closed a little longer
Because we all could really use the rest

Except for the fact that we cannot see our friends

Except for the fact that my car hasn’t needed gas since February

Except for the fact that I watched 17 webinars on wipes today

Except for the fact that no one really wants to return to normal

Except for the fact that hair and nails grow figure out how to cut them yourself

Except for the fact that two months is a very long short time

Except for the fact that numbers are irrelevant

Except for the fact that each number is a funeral that cannot happen

Except for the fact that humans can’t follow directions

Except for the fact that there still isn’t enough equipment for hospital workers

Except for the fact that bookshelves are a good background for Zoom

Except for the fact that the future is anybody’s guesstimate

Except for the fact that we are not promised a single day

Except for the fact that walks are good for you

Except for the fact that I have 217 tabs open on mobile Safari

Except for the fact that we are all alchemists of the kitchen cupboard

Except for the fact that I refuse to turn on the news

Except for the fact that we’re aging all the time

Except for the fact that this will only take a little while

Except for the fact that we must

Accept the facts

Most of my dreams these days
happen in public where
the crowds are belligerent

trash is everywhere
fast food kiosks serving
obscene concoctions

movie theaters strewn
with insufficient space
and too many patrons spitting

when the film suddenly stops
the projector makes fun of us
and does not start it again

all the rules of distancing
seem to be in place but
none of them are happening

my dreams need a new media diet

The cats spent all day
alternating chairs
in the sun room

first one would sleep
on one and the other
would sleep on the other

occasionally they would
dart down the stairs
and back up again

for no apparent reason
only to return to
the same spots

this time in the darkness