Second Coming No. 68 — March 28, 2025
A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House
Anastasia Vassos
My Necessary Conversation With the Universe
grâce à Mark Nepo The red truck parked across the street from Star Market is blazoned on its side: How’s your meat? I drive past the Trump store that popped up all neon before the election now empty of customers. Has the end of the world arrived? Every morning I have to remind myself I’m glad to twist in the sheets— my aching joints, morning headache preferable to cancer, diabetes. So. How’s my meat? By meat I mean body and by body I mean the jar that lights my soul intact. Without a body, the spirit can’t breathe. It’s 7am, two weeks before the days get longer. The sun’s angle as it rises this morning burns into Boston torching the dark, making candles of State Street Bank, South Station’s tower the John Hancock’s 10,344 windows. Something about morning’s luster after hours of deep night elevates us. Meanwhile the thrum of the furnace starts up pumping heat keeping time to this earworm this floating heartbeat. & speaking of immovable objects the truck hasn’t moved in weeks. & the sad Trump Store still stands, lights out. Swag gathers dust. Give me another window, a distinct lens to peer past convention. Not a mirror— I’ve had enough of reflection this morning. How’s your meat? It’s an unanswerable question.
Anastasia Vassos is the author of the poetry collection Nike Adjusting Her Sandal (Nixes Mate Books, 2021) and the poetry chapbook Nostos (Kelsay Books, 2023). Her work has been widely anthologized online and in print journals. Her poems about the Greek-American diaspora have been translated into Greek. A reader for Lily Poetry Review, Vassos lives in Boston.
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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