Hello Friends,
There’s a poem by Sharon Olds called “Little Things” that ends “as if it were our duty to / find things to love, to bind ourselves to this world.” Sometimes I think it’s the duty of the poets to bring us news of those little things, to help bind us to this world — as the poet Joshua Jennifer Espinoza searches for in today’s poem.
Joshua Jennifer Espinoza was also previously featured for Poem-A-Day April 6, 2024 (“Things Haunt”) and Poem-A-Day April 14, 2022 (“The Moon is Trans”).
Enjoy!
Ællen
There’s a poem by Sharon Olds called “Little Things” that ends “as if it were our duty to / find things to love, to bind ourselves to this world.” Sometimes I think it’s the duty of the poets to bring us news of those little things, to help bind us to this world — as the poet Joshua Jennifer Espinoza searches for in today’s poem.
Joshua Jennifer Espinoza was also previously featured for Poem-A-Day April 6, 2024 (“Things Haunt”) and Poem-A-Day April 14, 2022 (“The Moon is Trans”).
Enjoy!
Ællen
The Sunset and the Purple-Flowered Tree
I talk to a screen who assures me everything is fine.
I am not broken. I am not depressed. I am simply
in touch with the material conditions of my life. It is
the end of the world, and it’s fine. People laugh
about this, self-soothing engines sputtering
through a nosedive. Not me. I’ve gone and lost my
sense of humor when I need it most. This is why I
speak smoke into a scene. I dance against language
and abandon verse halfway through, like a broken-
throated singer. I wander around the front yard,
pathless as a little ant at the tip of a curled-up
cactus. Birds flit in and out of shining branches.
A garden blooms large in my throat. Color and life
conspire against my idea of the world. I have to
laugh until I am crying, make an ocean to land
upon in this sea of flames. Here I am.
Another late-winter afternoon,
the sunset and the purple-flowered tree
trying their best to keep me alive.
■
I talk to a screen who assures me everything is fine.
I am not broken. I am not depressed. I am simply
in touch with the material conditions of my life. It is
the end of the world, and it’s fine. People laugh
about this, self-soothing engines sputtering
through a nosedive. Not me. I’ve gone and lost my
sense of humor when I need it most. This is why I
speak smoke into a scene. I dance against language
and abandon verse halfway through, like a broken-
throated singer. I wander around the front yard,
pathless as a little ant at the tip of a curled-up
cactus. Birds flit in and out of shining branches.
A garden blooms large in my throat. Color and life
conspire against my idea of the world. I have to
laugh until I am crying, make an ocean to land
upon in this sea of flames. Here I am.
Another late-winter afternoon,
the sunset and the purple-flowered tree
trying their best to keep me alive.
■