Because tree stumps have replaced office chairs.
Because a city of wind has replaced commercial
business parks. Because infinity has been revealed
as a tidy line of morel mushrooms too long
for the human eye to perceive. Because the trail
winds through vacant halls like a poisoned snake.
Because we have perceived time backward
and have therefore been living in reverse,
growing younger all these years, growing
smaller, buying caskets five times our size,
using all that extra wood for nothing.
Because we have buried ourselves before
we have lived. Because the newscasters
have always been James Tate and the news
has always been poetry. Because gods and dogs
are one, which is why we have praised
what we have scolded and condescended
to what we have worshiped. Because magazines
pitched to the floor have been transformed
into lily pads and the floor has been
reincarnated as a sea. Because this is how
we have proven that we can walk on water.
Because we have taken the first step.
***
Dana Henry Martin’s work has appeared in Barrow Street, Chiron Review, Cider Press Review, FRiGG, Muzzle, New Letters, Rogue Agent, Stirring, Willow Springs, and other literary journals. Martin’s poetry collections include the chapbooks Toward What Is Awful (YesYes Books), In the Space Where I Was (Hyacinth Girl Press), and The Spare Room (Blood Pudding Press). Their work explores cognition, perception, imagination, and reality within the frameworks of trauma, family systems, culture, and language.
Poet’s website: noseahere.com
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