checks and balances are not physical laws

 

jazz hands

 

how the mind filters, stores

 

and then the metaphysics

 

each object fruitful, slyly transparent, parchment

 

anticipation of a cuckoo or meadowlark

 

who can know the path of their own invention

 

***

“Seventh month” borrows an observation that Timothy Snyder made in a podcast about tyranny:  “Checks and balances are not physical laws.”

Paige Menton grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and earned a bachelor’s in comparative literature from Brown University. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Kestrel, Fourth River, LVNG, Spiral Orb, Clade Song, ecopoetics, and other journals. She teaches writing and naturalist studies to homeschoolers near Philadelphia.