3/1/2021
the pile of one-dollar-bills
in front of me is making eyes
as if to say congratulations
puny god
you’ve been here
since 4 and the slow
soft rounds of weak beer
and angry whiskey
will keep coming
with their voodoo
and cunning
the fires rage
in the cooped streets
waging war
against similar
unrelated fires
all the rest of everybody
but still nothing left
once it was the lottery
in the morning and at night
but now it’s mad bad timing
sweat in the morning and at night
i wake to not the trumpet
but you standing
at the window do you cry
did we pray for anybody
save ourselves
the orange light
pours over your face
as the paperclips fall
from the sky
onto the poplar the road
our dark hearts
the fires staunch
almost happy
Britt Melewski’s poems have appeared in Puerto del Sol, Sporkpress, Forklift, Ohio, and Prairie Schooner among others. He curates the New York City-based reading series FREE WATER. Melewski received his MFA at Rutgers-Newark in 2012. He lives in Brooklyn.
