a cloud that follows us
wherever we go becomes
the last stage, what is lost
our auras, mothers

our fathers’ disappeared
remote pilot opens a window
to feel the breeze, notices
the contestant in high def

a look of worry at the wheel
as time runs out
the audience explodes
into the future collateral damage

*

Joshua Zelesnick’s poems and political essays have appeared in Jubilat, Drunken Boat/Meridian Anthology, Word For/Word, Juked, 8 Poems, POETiCA REViEW, Labor Notes, Counter Punch, Yes Poetry, Texas Review, DIAGRAM, and other journals. His chapbook Cherub Poems was published with Bonfire Books in 2019.  He teaches at public school in Pittsburgh where he lives with his partner and two young daughters in a garden co-housing community. With friends, he helps host a living room music and reading series.