Layoffs
A Poem
The day after savage anthems,
I look for grief behind my eyeballs.
I capture hallucination.
I close my fist tight over a firefly
of tangible solution, drop her in a jar,
a magic lantern to peel back smog,
and yet someone has swiped that fly away
in a sleight-of-hand street magician moment.
I have seen you climb into a cry,
wave the fist of an unemployment letter.
I am surprised at your surprise,
the width of your wavey eyeliner,
the top button of your suit jacket,
the fold of a cardboard box.
The charts drop and climb,
we make marks on a microscope slide
and I lose my overwhelming sense of the whole.
It’s as if the signposts were stripped away
and all that was left was my recommendation.
I am sorry you had to see this.
I am sorry I could not prepare you for this unassembly.
Knowing you are out there, will have to be enough.
©️ Trapper Markelz 2023
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