Hooked

Don’t roil the water
Wait for the paint to dry
Sssh! the children will hear
What are you burning
Commingling with the ashes
of the dead?
Surely you know the matter—
Particulate—we breathe
Is someone’s uncle
Or sister floating in air
At 300 ppm

Recycling
You say bilious
In cross-bone stance
Dead planet nimbus
Blinding
Chunter of dead
Rasps & tongues

A passing thought
I hooked
& threw back

“We made the world we’re living in and we have to make it over again.”

— James Baldwin / “Notes for a Hypothetical Novel”