Today's poem is by Paige Webb

new emergencies
       

and where it begins it begins mid-fall against the fall
from some misforgotten state of grace a place played
edenic as narrative's birth the inciting incident to rise
of action(able) response and what does one do but rush
to the store to get the coffee to get the speed to just get
across the street in rush to miss the rush of a car's
sweep past the curb the hurdle forward to some money
money for some face for some space for some state of
existence in some future tense a climatic moment's
resolve some relief sweet pleasure the problem with
pleasure it ends like any material the average american
buys seventy pieces of clothing a year seventeen million
tons of waste total clothes made by hands by machines
to cover the animal beneath to blend in to not be
broken against rule of law to color in lines on a map
borders touching borders between states a field of
hazegreen between sheets the sweat of what stakes all
the aperture wants is a figure to capture what is the
impulse to capture the self this idle engine this stalled
time the wasted paper on all these lines what laws have
you broken and not been caught what catches your
attention what sustains what sustains what version of
what narrative builds with each step to what direction
and please who loafs who lazes whose ease

Copyright © 2024 Paige Webb All rights reserved
from ANMLY
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission