last
week our dog couldn’t walk
and
these words think they want
to
become something more
than
a poem but I can’t stop
thinking
of this news article
I
read a month or so ago about
a
12-year-old boy who died
locked
in his room without
food
or a toilet the windows
boarded
over by his parents
while
the rest of their kids ate
dinner
and watched TV and
went
to school whatever our
internet
cuts out at random
which
makes working from home
difficult
I try to drink enough
water
each day but it just seems
to
go right through me stupid
poetry
every season a handful
of
new birds smash headfirst
into
one of our large windows
and
the garbage always needs
to
go out my 5-year-old has
worn
the same Pink Floyd shirt
every
day for 8 months although
now
it’s only sleeves and collar and
he
has a panic attack every time he
tries
on a different shirt when is
this
poem going to end our well
doesn’t
produce as much water
as
our family needs you can see
a
glass frog’s vital organs through
its
skin according to Okanagan
College’s
standardized grading
system
76% equals a B-plus today
Laurel
brought home a small
box
of ashes and we have half
a
prescription of Deramaxx
kevin mcpherson eckhoff is a writer, teacher, editor, comedian, and actor. His work has been anthologized in The New Concrete and Why Poetry Sucks and Experimental Praxis. His most recent book is their biography (BookHug, 2015) and his fifth book, The Pain Itself, is forthcoming from Insert Blanc Press. He appears in Sean Braune's yet-to-be-released directorial debut, Nuptials, with Ariana Marquis. He currently occupies the traditional Syilx territories where Okanagan College pays him to gab about words, bookmaking, and acting with rad student folks.
the
Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan
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