This century is full-on burning

the past past carrying back

lost to re-memory the year brings

millennial want: a bright new coat

red shoes an end to oil pipelines

and student loans   encase us all

in warmth not waged labor

drab curtains pulled aside

reveal window onto window

echo us many permutations

bring responses wrought

and metaled down

empty that treasury

steal back from church coffers

there is something that binds

more than moth-eaten sweaters

more than stripped-soled shoes

we wanting we to mean banks

burning profits re-distributed

we holding the soft hands of we

 

***

Megan Kaminski is the author of two books of poetry: Deep City (Noemi Press, 2015) and Desiring Map (Coconut Books, 2012). She is an assistant professor in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at the University of Kansas and the founder and curator of the Taproom Poetry Series.