Somehow

by Nick Jaina

you are like a pale persimmon flower
hoping to survive another hour

it’s a mystery
we can’t explain
all this wreckage
that we’ve seen
so destructive
so extreme

we are like the miners in the ditch
scratching at the earth’s beloved itch
it’s a mystery
we can’t explain
how fear
fills our lives
pays us out
in ones and fives

how have we become
all we tried to fight
all we’ve buried
cash and carry
and still we fight
every speech we start
we learned from candy hearts
and then we trail off

Somehow we are still reducible
carry the remainder wait until
dot dot dot
did it have to take
a miracle
for us to behave
push the stone back
from the cave

how have we betrayed
all we used to be
the space we take up
the face we make up
we used to be
certainly the yield
of all our thoughts congealed
will add to something real