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| Image source: The Never-Ending Nightmare That is This Election by Tom Tomorrow |
“nasty, brutish, and short” —Hobbes
being so pessimistic
so I’m going to start the morning
by ignoring the news
and focus on something random
like cutting my toenails
in hopes that early in the day
someone will see my toes
sticking out of my sandals
and admire my feet,
such lovely, lovely feet,
a compliment so charming
I might stop worrying
about how, despite years
of seeming stability,
it’s conceivable, that—boom!—
by the end of the week
the country’s domestic tranquility
will have collapsed into clashes
in the streets, at times the fighting
among swiftly mustered militias
so intense that the corners
of houses fall in rubble,
nobody bothering to care
who’s caught in the crossfire,
most of us come to grief,
and I’ll be cowering
(with my lovely toes)
in the plaster-dusted tub
without much hope
of your trying to cheer me up
till—pray we’re among the living—
some well-armed force
imposes peace.
William Aarnes lives in South Carolina. His latest collection is Do in Dour (Aldrich Press).