It’s Bleak

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It’s bleak, believe me— 

the odds of this film being any good.

The surreal improbability of a lone payphone ringing.

The path of gum and grime leading you to answer.

The voice on the other end that says it doesn’t go well 

for societies that fail to mourn mass death. 

A fog of anger rises from behind buildings. 

Humans catch each other’s eyes only to see who burns first. 

The elderly won’t reveal how grim it gets 

and the nurse isn’t listening anyway.

Villains, rich, slick as slate, 

convince themselves they’re heroes

and the heroes realize they never existed 

only when it’s too late.

It’s a shamed-or-be-shamed world out here, folks. 

One minute you're shaking hands with a martyr 

and the next they’re canceled

and what does that even mean?

It should have been yesterday. 

It can’t be tomorrow 

so the time is now—

exclaim something    anything     everything 

loud and meaningless.

History is out of your hands, 

circling your head, 

its weight still in your heart,

its devastation through your guts down an alleyway, 

pavement dampening in splattered premonition. 

Just ask the security camera. 

Ask the EMT if it’s just another corpse. 

Ask the cop that made the corpse 

how many citations since. 

The call ends and you’re pleading 

with every passerby for change.

This isn’t the first existential crisis on this city block 

and it won’t be the last.

So fake some optimism for once, for the 1,000th time—

Take your story, this unstill life in non-repose, 

and forget every word.

Crumple and toss it into the street 

like a poem, like a parking ticket,

like a theater stub.

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Dustin teaches Spanish and runs a very small non-profit that provides aid to the undocumented community in Richmond, VA. His poems appear in Blood and Bourbon, Ligeia, and other magazines. He most recently made the longlist in the 2021 UK national poetry competition. Dustin is currently working on a book of poems starring Gary's and Debbie's from American history and pop culture.

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