Song to the Cypress

Alan Gilbert

The sky is filled with invisible things,
                                         yet I can see the wrecking ball clearly.
We used a meat thermometer
                                         when the medical one broke,
              but we didn’t know where to insert it.
Fish scales can’t measure the flop
                                         after everything falls apart.
That’s when we went viral
                                         along with a video of a dancing houseplant
              as algorithms drive the meaning,
although I’m hoping it’s only the caffeine
                                         that’s making me sit here and shake.

The feedback loop is mostly static
                                         and drives the boats from shore.
I’m still waiting for the technology that lifts us up,
                                         as the cameras see me on the inside too.
These words have got me around the neck
                                         like seeds in a sparrow’s tiny talons
              before making their way to the landfill
along with whatever couldn’t be included
                                         in the estate sale and the backlash
              known as Tony Orlando and Dawn
because I’m not interested in nostalgia
                                         when the past was designed to hurt.

We watch a Greyhound bus in the distance
                                         as the railroad crossing gate
              bounces off the car’s hood
                            on a trip to the vet and then the florist.
Anyone could come through the window,
                                         so like me that flock is getting its waddle on.
I have ever only lost what I’ve loved,
                                         but sometimes it was also my fault,
              either too close or too far away,
and that’s a bigger story about the world
                                         that I don’t know how to tell.
Some bugs just want to cling to the screen.