“What we have called ‘the new abnormal’ last year…now has become an apparently enduring,
disturbing reality which things are not getting better.”
— Robert Rosner, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
you tick like
ball bearings
in a Rolex
that doesn’t stop.
there are barely
minutes to midnight.
each branch is
a fortune untold.
no two nettles
the same green
all over.
you
have looked hard
enough. worry on
your wing, not
the bare branch.
each year they
turn brown for
the same answer.
says the parent
whose child will die.
instead of trusting
your instincts, you
should have known
when to make
new ones, says
any raving evangel
of the anti-Earth,
the future comes
a little faster
with every
lukewarm winter.
Jonce Marshall Palmer (they/them) is a nonbinary poet & organizer recently relocated near Denver, CO. Their first chapbook, Searching For Smoke Rings, is available from Ghost City Press. You can connect with Jonce and see more of their work on Twitter @masterofmusix or on their website https://jmpalmer.carrd.co