When I awoke after
everything fell apart
nothing was awake
the words still shuddered
like voices in my head
my ribcage ached
the world was spiraling
out of orbit toward the sun
a thousand deserts blooming
I was a passenger
on a lonely space vessel
the only inhabitant left
the supermarkets were filled
to overflowing with flesh
no one left to eat
the world had gone awry
only I could see it
because it was in my head
Then I awoke and nothing
could stop what was coming
the universe ending
in backwards array
like a film on a screen being
deleted with each frame
each historic catastrophe
writ large and amplified
until no one was left
one day I’ll write
a science fiction novel
about it all but not today
-
MayPoWriMo 17
-
MayPoWriMo 16
I cannot believe I took
such detailed journals
for so many years
and now when the days
seem to blur together
in a mush kind of rush
I can barely string together
enough words to make
a status update so instead
I settle on a poem like
the cat settles on my lap
I could stay here all night but
when I read those days again
you live in what I wrote my friend
-
MayPoWriMo 15
for RLS
Today an alert on my phone which I was
clearing out for something to do
led me to a reminder that we spent
the day together five years ago today
that I wrote all about in my journal
which is a thing I used to do to have
something to do and it occurred to me
to give you a call because that is something
so many of us are trying to do it would be
perfectly natural to pick up the phone
and find you on the other end of the line
even though I know it is something
we can no longer do and in fact
it will be some time before I can visit you
to tell you about the caterpillars and
sewing machines in my memories
that come up occasionally on a day
like this day when it is too easy
to remember how much time
I’ve lived missing you
-
MayPoWriMo 14
Haiku improv from DB to REM
Somewhere out in space
David Bowie is saying—
Left at the right time
The darkest timeline
might even be the brightest
just before the dawn
Huh? What in the world?
Autocorrect, you are drunk
that’s saying something
When you just wake up
and find out the world left you
right where you started
It takes a whirlwind
to knock you back on your feet
or at least sideways
I have always been
a mystery to myself
just listen to this
Can’t get there from here
when the world is a monster
been there, know the way
-
MayPoWriMo 13
I trace isolation
with my fingers
in the air
as a child I counted the trees
through the car windshield
with eye blinks
stepped on the pavement
avoiding the cracks
putting maple seeds on my nose
thinking the perfect phrase
could only be measured
on appendages
making intricate symmetrical designs
with my foot over and over
until it was perfect
but only in the motion of the air
and only until my legs
reached the floor
-
MayPoWriMo 12
As time moves irretrievably further
into the past
the thought halfheartedly occurs
that this is all for nought
that surely we
do not survive even the barrier
between dream and waking how
then can it be
that death shall have no dominion
are not these stones in our path
for tripping over—No
when you wake from this long slumber
you will be as you ever were written
on the fabric
of every moment you pass through
even if we do not remember and no
one will remember
you are not going to beyond
but belong
and in belonging find a home
like this one here
-
MayPoWriMo 11
I gave up
making choices
in their place I put
the asking of questions
none have been answered
but then what’s a question for
if I gave you the key at the back of
the book would you tear out the pages
only to find them mimeographed
from here at the beginning
where for some reason
these words unread
form a pattern
I gave up
-
MayPoWriMo 10
Every day is practice
for a play that never comes
living with the presence
of without
not only the glow
of life within these cells
but the strange absence
that fills the air
causing ripples
as in the knowledge
that your face is
already known before
even you were born
that what brings you
out into the solid air
is the same breath
you take as it
evaporates to empty
nothingness is
only a concept
the body lives
ever and always
though different shapes
and remembrances
through us the same
-
MayPoWriMo 9
There was snow in May
and then the snow was all gone
didn’t even stick
Then the sun came out
and it went away again
while a chill wind blew
Then there were locusts
attacking what was left of
flowers in the yard
Then a tornado
fell through the opening of
a short volcano
Then ice caps melted
a huge river overflowed
the known universe
Then a loud bird chirped
and the cat had had enough
and closed the window
-
MayPoWriMo 8
How is your apocalypse diet working out?
I have baked a thing 703 times this week.
Did you watch that video everyone posted without fact checking first?
I have changed my sweatpants four times in two months.
Are you practicing mindfulness and abject terror?
I talked to the cat for 47 minutes before breakfast.
Can you imagine the radical change that will result from this obvious exposure of the broken and oppressive structures that align with oligarchy and keeps 99 percent of the populace tied to a tenuous debt ridden employment regime that does little to affect the status quo?
I was going to read my book today but forgot.
How long do you think this quarantine will last?
I’m no longer counting.
Joshua Keiter 