shr_4.1

Les Kay
Between bouts of insomnia
we munch microwave popcorn as
New York, Washington, Los Angeles,
Sydney, Tokyo, Moscow, Paris,
and London all simultaneously
explode beneath mint-green lasers,
and mankind slowly resists
enslavement to extraterrestrials
that look almost exactly like us;
we sip corn-syrup-rich generic soda
as a hitherto unknown virus
slips through spider monkey cages,
breaking the underfunded lab’s
overly lax quarantine procedures
before spreading faster than meme
to every metropolis, every shopping mall.
All night disbelief is ghost,
a gentle coo dismissed as wind—
the faintest clink of chain and iron.
Suspension lasts until daybreak
when bright-winged cardinals whistle
for clay-colored mates, and you
turn again to the same damn song:
crosswords, cover letters, résumés.
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