With No-one to Share the Vaccine
first published in Every Day Poets
The lazy river spits
swallows out and I,
I listen to the music,
a gramophone in my head with
green and yellow mellowing the
darkness passing by;
Current rocks me forward,
and I, I am an astronaut in orbit,
ever-falling down and down
to the ocean, the entire Earth
below me.
If I squeeze my eyes, I
can see stars in the darkness,
specks inspired by the pressure
of my thumbs and fingers; I?
I am the last man on
this lazy river—
I am Cain, left to wander
with only birds and fish
to hear my tales. My cure came late,
all mammals lost, and
the burden of civilization
falls to reptiles.
First published in Every Day Poets, 2011-01-25. Reprinted here by the author.