Wake Up or Get Out
We thought the babies pre-languagewere learning to hold crayonswere scribbling for the revelation of colorand making a mark
but what if they were transcribingthe movements of birdsbefore 3 million disappeared from North America?This is what I think about
when everyone has left for the dayafter feeding the conveyer of split attentionthe V-shaped chip in my front tooththe school drive the unpaid plumber
and the shifted posture of treesbecause the marine layer is enoughto drop the ceiling on a neighborhoodto slow the wildfire in Big Sur 30% contained
it is January PG&E tries to fix somethingwith helicopters and alerts I realize when the power cuts outI’ve been floated by a persistent hum of machines
I hear the battery clocktick across the face of an hourwhen a bird hits the windowso hard I…
You're reading a preview of
The American Poetry Review (Digital) - 1 Issue, September/October 2023