—FROM THE CHURCHES TO THE JAILS, TONIGHT IS ALL SILENT IN THE WORLD

Shelter in Place

under cover of dusk

I take today apart

strand by feeble strand

the edges of the nebula

I can’t seem to decipher

dog looking at me askance

as if I’ve turned felonious

and maybe the truth

is I have

minutes and hours murdered again

without so much as a ransom

missing everyone I love

missing being missed

and told so

there aren’t enough tears to

fill the swollen hollow of now

every poem wants me dead

every verse is a blurry hazard

blood-sucked dry of music

mere pixilated letters

blinking off and on

if you were here you would

tell me Shhh, Shhh, It’s okay

or Stop your bitching

but you aren’t

and the sky keeps cracking

the clouds won’t stop weeping

all these constipated moments

feel like the steel snout

of a pistol rammed in

the back of my throat

the same way yesterday

and today pry open

their jaws to laugh

but only ever manage

to scream