J o e l C r a i g —
FUTURE DAYS
—for Greg Purcell
Because
this evil
is always arriving
you laugh a hearty
hiding laugh
and try remembering
what a tickle can be
even at the false summit
snowbound acclimation
into what
is the word for having
your first real appetite
after losing someone close
so what
in the end is it
all about
these memorial
transgressions
and for how long can you
endure the word
for always having
an answer
shoved at you
so eventually
you don’t even ask
how many requiems
can you bury
dear Jerry
I have always
thought of you
as an artist
so I thought
you’d appreciate
my sharing
as an artist
what happens
from here on
is up to you
there are no rules
or requirements
fire is a big deal
it blazes right on through
delusion
and its requisite
comportment
you hope
your creamy fade-in
from silence
into wild
switchgrass
hazy plume
this gorgeous how are you
in the moment
you realize
a tornado is coming
for your high-noon
crisis calibration
cathedral
aperture
who are your daughters
and sons
of vicissitude
and what are your hopes
and dreams as an extended
script problem
only sporadically
bailed out
by it’s director
and to this day it is
unreasonable
to assume
a character knows
what genre they function in
how do you model
potential
for economic sunset
starting with yourself
how do you afford
opportunity
or account for how
are your 40-plus days
of heat dome
treating you
how about your 40
-straight hours of pure
panic aptitude
for what is the word
for piling
insecurity
on top of insecurity
on top of what
is the word for
this enforcement
of worrying
you let down someone
out of their skull
who no longer exists
but you’re so
language
is an organ
implying the word
inferno
like you know
whose authority to bargain
in the flickering
facts of cancer
breeze
you know a word
for everyone you love
seems to be having
existential problems
but no one
can talk about how
do you no longer
version yourself
out of existence
please
give yourself a day
to behave
in just about any
average soil
and make peace
with sometimes
needing to hang out
with not knowing
what is laughing
a hearty laugh
at the problem
always being
how do you make everyone
love each other
on the living through
such a tolerated
heatstroke
a heatstroke is like
when
in your subatomic
thinking
we are nothing
the way
our realities
eyeball bruise
against each other
how is your accounting
for denial
can you at least
give permission
permission
some emphatic heart
in your throat
but you can’t just throw
vigilance
at hypervigilance
like sad magic is useful
at the museum
of lighting a cigarette
while climbing
marble stairs
to just meet you
where you’re at
in the present emphasis
on knowing right now
at this moment
what exactly is happening
at the bottom of the ocean
which is why you need to learn
everything you can
about the ocean
all the oceans
oceans upon
what you can’t get
from the outer space
sense of dread
that everyone we long to embrace
still exists
but only inside
of one second of stars
to be followed by one billion
billion billion
billion years
of black holes
set your eyes on fire
this instant
sharpen your examined life
until it has no obvious
responsibility
for anything
like you are in a John
Cassavetes movie
scriptless
improvisatory
there may or may not be
a destination
but most definitely
there is no way home
from fraught ingratiation
into art
and life
that says I’m not going
to bow
to any mystery
but I do at this moment
love you for answering
honestly
which sub-personality are you
transacting with
and why do you believe
transcendence is possible
while living so reciprocally
and more importantly
where
functionally do you park
the pain
in this hybrid letter
shaped around tiny threads
of something you need
to say
plus some Wayne Shorter
wanting you
to question everything
how you distinguish anger
from contempt
while acknowledging
visibly it is a cold day
but not impossible
for what part of you
are you
do you have any
substantiation
any proof
you keep exhibiting for us what
is the word for why
does every poem look the same
but sound threatening
a little bit walks on water
a lot of knowing
digression into even if you’re never
comfortable
talking about your feelings
as the Basque people say
before Christ there was happiness
after Christ you are living
within a question
like this balloon is blown so full
of only breath
and yet it floats into what
are your hopes
and always shifting dreams
the kind of poetics
where you’re sort of your own
mafia
you know
breaking your own knees
and you’re gonna pay the price
you should have paid
a long time ago
why do so many people
believe you
are from California
dreaming hard
and today especially
hard up Hashimoto
thinking
what is the word for dreaming
a magic hour
in Minneapolis
so electric blue
everything is mirrors
and many ghosts
name this feeling
and take a breath
envelop it
breathe it out
into a Magritte balloon
like it is the final helium
over the medium deciduous
cooly imperiled landscape
arrangement catalytic
green
it’s so easy to make
assumptions
about and you’re so
this is my truth to the stars above
my truth cutting
each piano string
is language
is an organ
same as our skin
lyrically sad
but still magic
even with your heart
in your throat you’re so
words
there are only ever more of them
and harder to remember
once you hit
your curated reality
threshold
there is such a thing as living
within a question
rather than being an expert
so please be courageous
while passing through
the mouth of another
do you ever just sit
on the sofa for days
with your eyes on fire
like you’re rehearsing
for the breakout role
that will change your life
while knowing
how unreasonable it is
to assume
a character knows
in what genre
which unattainable fiery future
they are most
comfortable with
projecting the fantasy
of objectivity
onto
.