burn and leave your hometown, said New Found Glory

by Liam Strong

Saturday: 16
mile an
hour winds

leaves ensconced
to wire fences
like a tapestry

of flaking paint
hail melts as
soon as it hits

cement
this year no
Saint

Patrick’s Day
what does the Earth
know of panic

is it the 24-hour
diner closed
for more than

24 hours
when we see
an empty restaurant

we call it
dead
nobody wants to be

a bead of
an abacus
panic another term

for starving school
children
they say love

is a kind of disease
if we were to give
each other a bag

full of hands
whose family
member

would we be escorting
away
to say nature knows

panic means
we are alone
to call chaos pure

is to say
all that we
want is within

reason

---