Anecdotal Evidence

More data is needed
for us to say for sure, but
there is an
ever-growing
body of
evidence
that while the virus
primarily
attacks
one's lungs
it also
frequently
breaks
one's heart

Parenting at The End of the World

Two days ago we learned
we have twenty years
--if that--
before it's over
before we reach the end of the world

I would roll over and go back to sleep except
I'm a mother
of a child
who will be twenty five
when the world ends.

So I sit up
and wonder how to wipe the sleep from my eyes
and fix this.

Eat less meat
Stop driving
Start composting
Start planning
Stop dreaming

I cannot stop this. The end is coming but here is the thing:

It has always been the end of the world. 

Slavery
Poverty
Plague
First contact
The First World War
The potato famine
Every famine
The Depression
Every depression
The Second World War
The Cold War
Turf Wars
Every war

For every mother who has ever lived the end of the world has loomed
For every mother who has ever lived the end of the world was real

The difference this time is that it's happening to all of us
and for once in our
short, sad history
this particular genocide just might be
deserved.

Metaphor

Push through the cobwebs cluttering the attic of your mind--

but what a tired metaphor! 

Which, when you think about it, is in itself a tired metaphor --

and metaphors are sort of overdone, anyway.

But! I will persevere.

I am going to slog through this --

"Slog"? Who says slog? That is a poety word, not a real one --

-- I am going to beat this dead horse

until a gift falls out of it's

dry, old mouth.

does anyone suffer from being
too creative?

March 28th 2011

do you know why i haven't written any poems?

it's because i am too busy watching television.

i am not ashamed of this, however.

i am busy watching other people's poems
tell themselves.

Saturday March 26th

las vegas

"Never put your hand in your pocket;
that's a fireable offence."

i'm training, i'm breaking every rule

"i promised myself that when i survived Vietnam, i'd never sweat anything in life."

he didn't realize he was going to have all these problems

"i have problems
i have nightmares
it never leaves you."

you gotta be kidding me.

"you just adjust to it."

today really hit home -- the types of things they have to experience when they're at work.

March 24th 2011

lament

i have to stop
eating
sugar.