By Laura Carter

Everyone is wearing the mirror that everybody’s wearing!
It will always seem like morning in twenty
shades of parrots, and ordinary things

are far. The thought of grabbing a cup of coffee from Starbucks is a thought.
Wait a second. You’re almost already
an ordinary person once again,

and then, as soon as the mountains can overtake the sea,
there’s a song by Usher playing in the background, ever so lightly, and we
attack the Jacobins for having nerve.

The beginning always seemed to be the last, lined up like coffee spoons or the new day,
as a riot on the world’s other side
turns things, shakes things up, causes a panic.

The last time I saw you you were wearing my shirt.
After the last night we were glued to the news of the latest election,
desperate for some hero.