/ Poetry /
"On Wednesday, a Palestinian friend sent me a note of consolation. She ended it with the words 'only together.' Perhaps that can be our motto."
– Peter Beinart, "The Work of Moral Rebuilding Must Begin Now," New York Times, Sunday, October 15, 2023
& how after we've already moved mountains do we stop
one thing leading to another where do we draw a line
between the confluence of events & human intentions
///
gargantuan space clouds of gases that fueled mass
extinctions millions of years ago iced over the planet
& now here we are in the not-so-slow
///
meltdown: suspended trellis-like in one scenario in old time
wool on wool in free beat where everything exists concomitantly
structure on structure/ layer upon layer/ story on story/ history
upon history in a wild matrix as cipher of hurled & blurred
& broken by land & sea & air into nothing new
no new rhythm/ pulse-less my toes tap-less to this melody
in no measure signature but where we belong in the limbo
of this particular place & how did we arrive at these screens
swiping from one bloody image to the next in the mists
of our travels through an interstellar solar system immersed
in dense dust accumulating in the atmosphere perhaps triggering
a new ice age defined by timeless death upon death & again
reducing our sunlight & allowing a snowball chill/ chilled:
in this new period of glaciation in frigid thickets or in huts or tents
or in our suburban living rooms/ all the same themes/ no variation
I’ve been in/ seen/ heard this baseline before & not for
novelty’s sake but as a tribal human animal my red rose gul
chuval – I found it in a D.C. thrift shop – slung over my shoulder
///
& this much is clear from the fossil record: a widespread die-off
sixty-five million years ago wiped out dinosaurs
in the aftermath of an epic asteroid impact but that was
long before we that was long long long
///
a woven pillow-like sack/ a soft & portable wardrobe (after all we are all
always on the road to someplace else) a way to carry
what we can when we must must move leave
evacuate escape but here we are now in this
moment (by choice or otherwise) insiders
amongst our own or outsiders removed pulled away/divorced or only
separated (how does it feel to be alien unwelcome
on your own ground amongst more & more & more)
or otherwise try trying to live only together