“Does anybody know
what is happening right now?”
is every post in every Facebook group.
And the comments are always people’s
wrong-knowing, and how.
Does anybody know? The flowers
are nodding, blush tulips
which once stood like cups
have opened in ragged beauty,
what is happening now
but a lovely decay: Change the water;
they may last another day.
Try the marketplace, it is suggested,
a feed of sad photos of sadder
furniture, in hopeful need.
“$40 obo, you carry away”—
your best loss is your first loss,
the rag-traders used to say.
The best offer is any offer,
a grid of detritus, a Yankee swap
of forgotten dreams.
Does anyone know what
is happening right now?
the Internet screams.
Benjamin Harnett is a poet, fiction writer, historian, and digital engineer. His poetry has appeared recently in Poet Lore, Saranac Review, Entropy, and Evansville Review. He is the author of the novel The Happy Valley and the short story collection Gigantic. He lives in Cherry Valley, NY with his wife Toni and their collection of eccentric pets. He works for the New York Times.
Image: “An Elaborate Form of Suicide” by Stephen Allen May
Pine Hills Review 