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Cassandra is remembered more for being mad
than being right, says a friend
bowed under his burden of consciousness.
Sharing the load does not lighten it,
and we've yet to find a balm
for the chafing beneath its weight.
Nor are there enough drinks to dilute
the day's high tide of graphs.
Though ragged, the saw teeth of data points
belong to blades that level islands,
slice through tusks and hives
along with the customary forests
and, snagging, bring up empty nets.
The menu is long, and served with questions.
Whose sins are we eating besides our own?
When might this banquet end?
J.D. Smith’s third collection of poems Labor Day at Venice Beach was published in 2012; his first humor collection Notes of a Tourist on Planet Earth the following year.. His poems have appeared in journals and sites including 99 Poems for the 99 Percent, Nimrod, Tar River Poetry, Texas Review, and Dark Mountain 3.