[there must be one thing you can’t have in order to be alive]
there must be one thing you can’t have in order to be alive
watching flowers open on youtube
I mean, my life is wasted on my life
requirement is simple
it takes a wound to
return to yourself
the new sky
is the same as the old one
its achy maw
its barbwire grip
people are whatever they are next to
that won’t remember them
a dumb desert
a broken open sign
whatever I love best
reminds me of something else
Copyright © 2021 by Jon-Michael Frank. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 11, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets
“I wrote this during a punishingly hot Philadelphia summer. The sound of dirt bikes and busted open fire hydrants was everywhere. I remember writing it while sweating. I remember being in love.”
—Jon-Michael Frank
Jon-Michael Frank
Jon-Michael Frank is author of the poetry chapbook Nostalgia Flower (Witch Craft Mag, 2016) and the graphic novels, Dark Garbage (Floating World, 2019), and Is This The Right Color.... (Floating World, 2019).