Erin Murphy
What Did You Do Last Week?

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1.  I lay in bed and thought of the AA mantra
     one day at a time and the Dolly Parton lyric
     I’ve had to think up a way to survive
     and the Becket line I can’t go on. I’ll go on.

2.  I scattered a few bucks like birdseed
     to causes I care about.

3.  I sat in meetings where there were calls
     to order and motions on motions,
     oceans of motions. Someone in the shadows
     was always taking minutes. Taking minutes.

4.  I went for a walk in a wetland preserve
     nestled between an asphalt company
     and the county courthouse. A northern flicker
     pecked for ground beetles. On its head:
     a red brushstroke like an artist’s
     afterthought. Or a warning. I wondered
     if birds have blood. I wondered if the people
     in power have feelings. I wondered
     if we’ll go on. I told myself we can’t
     not go on.

5.  I wrote this poem.

Erin Murphy is the author most recently of the poetry collections Fluent in Blue (Grayson Books, 2024) and Human Resources (forthcoming from Salmon Poetry). Her poems have appeared in diode, ONE ART, Eastern Iowa Review, Brick Road Poetry Press, Ilanot Review. and other journals. She is a professor of English at Penn State Altoona and poetry editor of The Summerset Review.

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

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Indolent Books

Second Coming No. 62 — March 22, 2025