"Anything Exciting Going on in the Outside World?"

                                        question asked by Sarena Fox

Wish I could say the post-pandemic orgies

          have begun,

that we’re out here frolicking, flesh-stuck,

          fiercely free,

our bodies so intertwined we can’t locate

          the elbow that goes with the hand we hold.

Wish I could say the war overseas has ended,

          tanks forever buried in mud,

last shells duds, missiles frozen

          on their launching pads.

Wish I could say the angry rants of politics

          have settled to a soothing coo,

that everyone loves everyone else,

          the last slimy droplets of hate-spit

having hit the ground.

Wish I could say the Governor believes

          in clemency

for crimes of addiction—yours, mine—his pen

          halfway to writing your name on a writ.

Wish I could say it, but out here,

          it’s still the tedium, slog,

the world you left, the world that never leaves