Nothing’s Real
Another day on the screen
in the dumbest timeline.
Everything overproduced
& under-written: pop songs,
conspiracy, people with
stickers saying RESIST
bowing to targeted ads
& late-night TV hosts.
How am I better? Too many
beers, never arrested,
downtown close enough
to bike but too far to walk
so I stay in & watch nothing.
The truth is there is no truth.
I’m happiest eating a sandwich
in the air-conditioned room of denial.
Every day there are two meetings.
One decides to let people die
& another argues about arguing against it.
I fall apart on a whim.
I get more than I deserve.
This poem is about nothing.
Find someone rich to fight.
Alienation (Poem Against Suicide)
I do not own the device I use to write
this poem. I do not own the room I sleep in.
I do not own a cherry red car launched
into deep space. I do not own my reflection.
I do not own a sword. I do not own a gust
of wind. I do not own the numbers that name me.
I do not own my past. I do not own desire.
I do not own the chair I sit in to watch movies.
I do not own a small black cat. I do not own
my profiles on the internet. I do not own the woman
who loves me. I do not own the long hours
of my day. I do not own a box of ripe peaches.
I do not own a house on a quiet street lined
with maple trees. I do not own the bar I drink in.
I do not own my friends & family, who hold me
to this world I also do not own. I do not own
a shiny toy gun. I do not own the word alienation.
I do not own my self. I do not own myself. I do not.
Jakob Maier
Jakob Maier is a writer and video artist in Central New York. He is the author of the chapbooks Box of Swords (Foundlings Press, 2020) and Conversations (Ghost City Press, 2017).