Warm Life
for Bill Berkson & Khaled al-Assad
the union president’s dead
& they won’t let transgender
people pee in north carolina
& here i’m complaining about
climbing the mountain again
the mountain’ll always remain
if i’m lucky, to keep me from
sucking & only a king mule will
do. humbled by bill as he goes
through the business of staying
alive with dignified unconcern. i
don’t deserve him, have no zen
no dasein, just half-a-dozen self
-inflicted wounds i’m expected
to grin & bear & like robert
plant, i do. it’s like i’m in
a rembrandt or something
holding testtubes to the sun
to read my urine specimens &
—spoiler alert—i’m trigger sad
checked my email mid-poem
so of course its bad news
the ancient city is practically
gone, palmyra, palmyra
at least i still have bill
here in isis usa
Copyright Credit: Garrett Caples, "Warm Life." Copyright © 2017 by Garrett Caples. Used by permission of the author for PoetryNow, a partnership between the Poetry Foundation and the WFMT Radio Network.
Source: PoetryNow (2017)