Not Everything Is Terrible, Poetry Edition

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Photo of a battered green overpass above a 2-lane road with cars in either direction. The sky is gray-white and the trees are bare. There is snow on the ground. Red letters spray-painted on the overpass read "KEEP GOIN"
Poem text: If You Were Looking for a Sign, This Is It

Yesterday was hard. The day before yesterday, hard, too. 
Somehow, something about today has made it soft. Not the unrelenting
blankness of the December sky. Not the pain in my teeth, or my hands, or my aching heart. 
Not the electric bill. Not the contagion. But the messages from grocers, snow-shovelers, 
thanking me for supporting them. Them, who keep my body and home 
when I can’t push a shopping cart or stand up in the shower. And 
the pileated woodpecker glimpsed 

—!

through the window of the dentist’s office. The hygienist 
turning to follow my fingers into the shadowy pines. The rich red 
brushstroke of the long bird’s long crest. The bright, matching threads 
of my blood—right quantity, for once, and right reason—gliding 
down the little white drain. The dentist reminiscing 
about the owl he saw once. The spindly green 
overpass graffiti urging us all 
to K E E P G O I N.

*

Text:

If You Were Looking for a Sign, This Is It

Yesterday was hard. The day before yesterday, hard, too.

Somehow, something about today has made it soft. Not the unrelenting

blankness of the December sky. Not the pain in my teeth, or my hands, or my aching heart.

Not the electric bill. Not the contagion. But the messages from grocers, snow-shovelers,

thanking me for supporting them. Them, who keep my body and home

when I can’t push a shopping cart or stand up in the shower. And

the pileated woodpecker glimpsed

—!

through the window of the dentist’s office. The hygienist

turning to follow my fingers into the shadowy pines. The rich red

brushstroke of the long bird’s long crest. The bright, matching threads

of my blood—right quantity, for once, and right reason—gliding

down the little white drain. The dentist reminiscing

about the owl he saw once. The spindly green

overpass graffiti urging us all

to K E E P G O I N.

*

Photo by me.

2 thoughts on “Not Everything Is Terrible, Poetry Edition

  1. Thank you, Christa! The graffiti has since been painted over, but it’s still visible if you know where to look. Hard not to see a metaphor there. 🙂

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