I’ll be a fast-moving cloud, and you
can be low hanging fruit. Don’t be alarmed
by what you are hearing. The difference
between celebratory fireworks and celebratory
gunfire can be hard to distinguish.
Please try to stay focused.
I know the hum of the overhead projector
is soothing, but please don’t start yawning,
if you start yawning then I’ll start yawning
and then where will it end? We will take
a break and have a snack later. Now is the time
to bend yourself to the task at hand. To infest
all agencies with our sympathizers. We will
be setting all rivers on fire. You need to learn
to say goodbye in as many different languages
as possible. I know. It feels like you are trying
to hold the melody to Simple Gifts and the Ode To Joy
in your head at the same time. This is not natural.
Everyone struggles with it at first. But then, everyone
struggles with everything at first.
PATRICK MEEDS lives in Syracuse, NY and studies writing at the Syracuse YMCA’s Downtown Writer’s Center. He has been previously published in Stone Canoe literary journal, the New Ohio Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Atticus Review, Whiskey Island, Guernica, East by Northeast, Door Is A Jar, Jokes Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, Doubly Mad, What Are Birds?, The Main Street Rag. Toho Journal, Nine Mile Review, The North Virginia Review, The Indianapolis Review, The Inflectionist, and The Blotter.
