Such a tired question
or slack-spined answer,
wind whipping the parched grass
into a thrash of dried-up voices,
a leap of grasshoppers
mocking the cracked ground.
As hot as it is, we may be
in the coolest summer
of the rest of our lives,
a fate that lands jackbooted,
a kick to the face,
two black eyes all at once,
greed and ignorance a plague
on every belly.
I pretend the money from my taxes
mends pot-holed roads
and bridges, try not to think
about the weight of corporate waste,
stress-eat another jelly doughnut
because why not?
Everywhere I stand is a graveyard
of strangled roots, a dying pine
shedding its hypodermics in the background.
Once all that was green is gone,
who will we be?
Time is the only thing that passes.
Gather up what small magics you can.
There are few places to hide.
—
Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour is the author of four collections of poetry and is the recipient of a POTY Award, Storytrade Award, Legacy Award, and Best Book Award. She is a Pillars of Prosperity Fellow for the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, a member of the Ohio Advisory Group of the National Museum of Women in The Arts, the Executive Director of the Women of Appalachia Project, and is the editor of its anthology series Women Speak. Her work has been featured in a number of periodicals and journals including the American Book Review, World Literature Today, The New York Times, and Poem-a-Day. Find her at www.kariguterseymourpoet.com.
