I
Dark days, dark days, she is telling me
it’s dark days and tomorrow we must
work at the Walmart or be ousted.
I do not believe this speech even
as it repeats out the drafty back-
door. You’re a man now, I’m your blanket.
The arrows leaving you; worry is
your tremor. Father inside father.
Father inside me. Walmart our lot
Let me check the paper in your hand.
Did you find the infant formula?
It’s locked up behind the register.
Glorious land where we once planted
a Shell station on this very spot
where now Walmart and the fallout live.
II
I am first relieved to hear that some
where tech exists which erases all
this. Next I wonder what I can save
I look at everything in my way.
The Alternate history of mom.
She’s a lawyer, an actress the Queen.
Unreasonable light. The teacher
said, “very bright colors make you blind.”
Past? In the future? or presently?
She probably meant only herself.
Save sympathy, save shield, save color,
save some metals to use as big drums.
Cool dry sunlight. I never met you.
Breathing, breathing easily. Let them.
Up the mountain as though falling down.
Ish Klein
Ish Klein is a writer and performer whose latest book of poems is called The New Sun Time. Their work has been published in Gare du Nord, Versal, The Cambridge Literary Review, Fence, The Bennington Review, Oversound Journal and other places. Ish is a founding member of the Connecticut River Valley Poets Theater (CRVPT) and Anthology Poets Theatre (APT) and now lives in Kalamazoo where they produce and host the podcast "Wrestling with Poetry" which is about pro wrestling and poetry. Access it freely here: https://www.youtube.com/@wrestlingwithpoetry