Walker County Council Meeting: March 15th, 2025

-

Walker County Council Meeting: March 15th


The question was, he prefaced 

from the stand, a simple one: Is it true, 


Ms. Teems, that as it stands you received

a zero-dollar deficit  from Mr. Whitfield


when you took  the chair? Her answer

was plain in kind. He nodded, as if


this was just where he wanted her 

for what came next. And do you, Ms. Teems, 


reckon to keep it that way? It was a fair 

if obvious question, simple as the ones 


we tax ourselves a fortune 

to avoid: What do you want? 


What do you love? When do you feel

most at home in the crowded courthouse


annex of yourself? We leaned forward

in the stale click of the clock,


waiting for an answer and marveling 

at just how long the ensuing silence.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quorum Present?

-
Do We Have a  Quorum?  Well we’re present—this hangnail of the living  contingent—and then  there’s the unaccounted for who came before quite likely peering in—for all  we know—through the wood-frame windows, eager to wipe a dust-hole  with their thumbs and watch the goings-on to see if we arrive at a kind  of consensus. So to answer your question,  yes. And speaking of questions, theirs are ours and we carry the weight of them in the damp manila folders of our lives, eager to take the stand: On behalf of all of us, then, Why does it cost so much? Are we,  on this end of the bench, being  heard? And then, in a word,  what are we going to do about it? 
Read more

The Bends

-
 THE BENDS           At a certain depth the voices all thrum at the same, garbled pitch.  Both wisdom and the waiting swarm of bees call you up for air,  both wisdom and the Anglerfish draw you deeper. Do you paddle faster  from Leviathan or close your eyes and wait?  Once inside, do you stab the tender heart or caress it? There’s leagues on leagues but we’re in  out of ours and the tanks are low. You die if you come up too quick, you die  if you don’t surface soon, and at this sounding we won’t be dragged out by the light  of the moon. As to good news, t he returned ship sloshes vacant  at port while the wreck is found  at rest on solid ground, home now  to an ecosystem riddled with life.
Read more

Refurbished

-
Refurbished The ladybug died  wedged in wicker,  is spray-painted green.  Disassemble yourself.  Free trampoline.  Not one to jump to conclusions, but if even pipe-smoke throws a shadow in moonlight, nothing is ever full- nothing, right?  The trees agree to lower the veil and reveal the bare strip of road which runs behind the house.  The white roar of leaving  never leaves, and the porch  light flickers but never goes out.  In a world of partially resurrected things, the quick and the dead dance a rumba then collapse in a tangled heap to make  furious love till morning shakes the can and picks a fade-resistant shade of light.
Read more