Poetry

Lucas Pimenta photo

By

KJ Hannah Greenberg

A Regime of Cells and Their Opposites

A regime of cells and their opposites, such garbled genetics,

Sorted in centrifuge, kept from erroneous mixings, previously

Came together to form living stanchions, to create biological

Demesnes beneath flesh and sinew, also around select bones.

Those desiderata brought life to microbes stuck in chemicals.

In a province of gaslights, angelic curls, odd jalopies, where

Citizens discounted mediation for sexual harassment, mulled

Kind words or vitriol, fusty bits saddled tramontane organs.

Regard, healing as a saturnine experience, no matter propinquity

Among care providers and patients; mostly, susceptibility to bribes,

Parenting experience, even other “nontraditional” pursuits, makes

Young princes snicker while prevaricating around their neighbors.

Corporeal door locks, cameras, other possessions of relative sycophants,

Dab tint onto canvas, block social stiles, drop caltrops at corners, bark,

Grow facile with convergent media. Cishet individuals’ happenstance

Sometimes circulates messages full of fluff as well as hyaline nonsense.

Meanwhile, piles of berries, other woodland wonders, serve contentiously.

Honey, the best of fruit, compared to “liberal,” desultory topics, including

Ardent stalwarts’ herding obstreperous masses over hortatory possibilities,

Causes courtiers to propitiate themselves around the king’s table, but fail.

Some fill small wagons, light permitting, with milk cartons, jay feathers,

Until playing caroms, calls up portraits, gratis, hidden orchestras’ melismas.

Among persons adequately civilized to preserve the custom of letter writing,

Flapdoodle accompanies partying. Anyhow, chuffed persons rarely curtsy.

Life and death situations with undersized children effulgently impact hubris.

Tantrums, devoid of compulsion, of rage, or of other misconstrued rationale,

Like irregular regard for women’s welfare or for the health of fractious men,

Create homes for all nature of eidolons, mainly folks covered in verbal scrim.

Shrewdness Derived from an Excess of Disquiet

His shrewdness derived from an excess of disquiet.

See, reality bites. Wounds reverberate. There exist

Sharp teeth willing to clamp down fully.

Darkness fetches fatigue, dryness, discouragement,

Overall emotional depletion, also small uglinesses,

Which sprout midmornings.

Bank accounts become the least of interpersonal worries.

It’s as nothing to wear out antiquated microfilm readers,

To otherwise rid mental libraries of “old rubbish.”

She would mindlessly stick her head inside the hoary monster

If her act resulted in their once more fumbling among daisies,

Being rubbernecked by passersby.

Still, their involvement called forth too many litigious knots.

Jumping trains no longer found them outside liminal notions

Like entitlement or well-paid work.

Sometimes, we’re unable to face down tech consultants,

To brazen out collective death, to stay the course against

Local and not-so-local business bludgeons.

Ultimately, she never learned his name, his Social Security

Number, address, LinkedIn moniker, dungeon avatar, beer.

His identity remained her guess.

He became yet another cozen, latest fellow lacking bona fides

One supplementary process of combining and refining dashes

All elegiac in their authenticity.

KJ Hannah Greenberg

KJ Hannah Greenberg’s whimsical writing buds in pastures where gelatinous wildebeests roam and beneath the soil where fey hedgehogs play. Her newest book is Dreams are for Coloring Books: Midlife Marvels (Seashell Books, May 2017).