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| "The Persistence of Memory" (1931) by Salvador Dali |
Things are slowing down.
It takes me 2 days to drink a cup of coffee,
A week to read a book,
A month to water the bushes we re-planted in June.
I move from one room to another
looking for shoes I haven’t worn in 2 months.
If I come across my car keys
I won’t recognize them.
I’ve stopped listening to the news
Stopped looking out the window
Stopped wondering what tomorrow
Will be like.
I started this poem in March
Maybe I’ll finish it
By Christmas.
John Guzlowski's poems and stories have appeared in North American Review, Ontario Review, Rattle, Atlanta Review, Nimrod, Crab Orchard Review, and Salon. Garrison Keillor read his poem “What My Father Believed” on his program The Writers Almanac. Guzlowski's poems have won the Eric Hoffer/Montaigne Award for most thought provoking book of 2017, the Ben Franklin Poetry Award, and the $7500 Illinois Arts Award for Poetry.