{"id":14529,"date":"2022-12-14T00:34:44","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T22:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=14529"},"modified":"2022-12-17T00:35:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T22:35:51","slug":"poems-by-andrew-najberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=14529","title":{"rendered":"poems by Andrew Najberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty first century headlines<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This story like many stories<\/p>\n

starts with a bullet<\/p>\n

and ends with tears<\/p>\n

and justice deferred<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll leave the names<\/p>\n

to the date,<\/p>\n

to the wound<\/p>\n

freshest to you<\/p>\n

let them tumble<\/p>\n

from your lips<\/p>\n

like a waterfall<\/p>\n

because we\u2019ve heard it<\/p>\n

but must drink again,<\/p>\n

because it leaks from<\/p>\n

our ears<\/p>\n

before we register<\/p>\n

the most recent,<\/p>\n

because no vessel<\/p>\n

holds enough volume<\/p>\n

to speak as loud as grief.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Summoning the Trampled Gods<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With the lights and bodies and the sweat on your lips and the sweat of your neighbor<\/p>\n

and sultry heat throbbing from shoulders and bellies and wide-open mouths,<\/p>\n

when the fluid dynamics of a crowd, when we are water and skin and pulp<\/p>\n

at a doorway in a concert hall fire or surging for a back alley<\/p>\n

to escape gunshots in a plaza, when we move as liquid<\/p>\n

and compress just as little without breaking<\/p>\n

something vital, something pours<\/p>\n

from the container<\/p>\n

of self,<\/p>\n

ashes<\/p>\n

through<\/p>\n

cloth,<\/p>\n

elusive,<\/p>\n

dry<\/p>\n

in mouths<\/p>\n

Iike<\/p>\n

trampled<\/p>\n

prayers<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This life was stolen<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From someone perhaps more deserving,<\/p>\n

someone who had less<\/p>\n

who never knew what they could be<\/p>\n

who faced more locked doors than open<\/p>\n

windows whose fists close around bars<\/p>\n

or who perched stools at bars<\/p>\n

who spent years of piano lessons trying to learn bars<\/p>\n

or who just couldn\u2019t pass the bar<\/p>\n

whose parents didn\u2019t set the bar<\/p>\n

high enough who couldn\u2019t find the drug<\/p>\n

to get them high enough who was never taught<\/p>\n

to set their eyes high enough or couldn\u2019t find<\/p>\n

the time off work to get their grades high<\/p>\n

enough who couldn\u2019t get their savings<\/p>\n

high enough<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An Hour in Techno Hedonia<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need to go an hour<\/p>\n

without drinking tragic glass,<\/p>\n

liquid headlines in plasma<\/p>\n

that light midnight bedsides<\/p>\n

like a second star joined<\/p>\n

the dance of Sol.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The numbers dead,<\/p>\n

Shots fired, stillborn<\/p>\n

Heart disease tooth ache<\/p>\n

Cancer shower elephant<\/p>\n

March to the burial ground<\/p>\n

Like manna of psyche<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

heart beats techno-hedonism<\/p>\n

with hands free Hallelujah<\/p>\n

to the touchdown Jesus<\/p>\n

and the fist down on table<\/p>\n

edge when we celebrate<\/p>\n

how we\u2019ve mocked the soil.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A gasp<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Have you\u2019ve stopped<\/p>\n

to consider<\/p>\n

how many stand<\/p>\n

breathless<\/p>\n

at windows<\/p>\n

like vigil candles,<\/p>\n

not knowing<\/p>\n

for what they hope,<\/p>\n

perhaps for love,<\/p>\n

or resurrection,<\/p>\n

their daily bread<\/p>\n

or good catch,<\/p>\n

the condensation<\/p>\n

of breath or<\/p>\n

hope itself,<\/p>\n

and that by the odds<\/p>\n

of probability<\/p>\n

if you stand at your<\/p>\n

own glass<\/p>\n

and press spread fingers<\/p>\n

to the pane,<\/p>\n

you touch<\/p>\n

with the exact<\/p>\n

configuration<\/p>\n

of someone<\/p>\n

in desperation<\/p>\n

unknowing<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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