it’s pouring outside which is rare in Los Angeles relative to most anywhere except for actually quite a few places in the world
Spotify Rain
it’s pouring outside
which is rare in Los Angeles
relative to most anywhere
except for actually quite a few places in the world
should I name them?
i’m never sure how specific a poem should be
i prefer more narrow a view
on Spotify, you can listen to rain
that sounds like safe rain
not, are there holes in the roof rain
will the house float away
river overflow rain
and so i choose my headphones and my spotify rain
to block out the sent from the sky rain
so i can focus
by which i mean distract myself
which you all understand
because we’ve agreed to allow it
sometimes we dance in the pain together
like a star football player’s cardiac arrest
should I mention his name?
do you know it?
how specific should I be?
should I narrow the view?
made for TV pain
not like war in Ukraine pain
girls being kidnapped, drugged, sold and raped again and again pain
not separated families at the border pain
not homeless in the rain pain
but spotify pain
to focus the people’s attention
a social media blitzkrieg
an A-Bomb of virility
bit by bit
piece by piece
like by like
by share
by emojis of care and love
we recall what it means to be human
the essence of it
the drizzle
the light rain sort
over-salted slickly packaged
delivered in high definition to any screen pain
not bomb by bomb pain
or blown off leg pain
not gagged and tortured pain
not a very viral get a lot of likes on facebook kind of pain
the weather report on my iPhone predicts
it won’t be endless week after week rain
not house float away rain
more than mist or sprinkle or drizzle rain
but not, i can turn it off when I choose rain
not spotify rain
Climate Tipping Points and the 4X100 Meter Relay
isn’t it amazing that a human can in an instant
gauge their exact distance from a basketball hoop
calculate the precise amount of strength, arc and rotation to apply to the ball
and then tell the body to do it
or the amount of space between you and the car in front of you
as you slam on the brakes and realize you are not going to stop in time
and begin to calculate the force of impact
and how to best position your body
and surrender your mind
so to have the best chance of survival
i’m thinking about the 4X100 meter relay race
and how you usually know before the final handoff of the baton
if your team has even a chance
and that how, in the races that are the most exciting,
it’s not so easy to tell until after the last baton has been passed
when, as all of the anchors round the final turn
you get your first perpendicular cross-section view
and finally know exactly where everyone is
it is obvious
we are too far behind
we’re not going to sprint
Love is the Ark
Sound from Song
My phone keeps dinging
Mimicking so closely the sound of a bird
That I cannot distinguish
Sound from song
Nor the fallen violet jacaranda petals
from the plastic blue dust
of my disintegrating pool cover
soaking into the earth
Ashes to micro-plastic ashes
Dust to concrete dust
