Unhealthy particulates were found throughout the home
—”The Toxic Homes of Los Angeles,” June 24, 2025
Reading the Times
So many things to be afraid of: the space junk of Damocles
orbiting in the troposphere, that worrisome spot
on my friend’s pancreas, the disappearance of the bagel man
& donut lady & farmworker to far-off destinations while the asylum
issues new protocols for the planet. There go the forests & trout streams
of your youth & here comes another blackout, your apartment gone dark
as a fresh coal on the tongue about to be fired like the one the pharaohs
offered Moses–the choice was that or gold, the story goes some angel shoved
his hand toward the coal so he ended up purified, but also stuttering
like the brother I spent my childhood hiding from in my father’s closet
below rows of suit coats, next to the electric buffer for his shoes. The buffers
were soft wool, & my brother the wolf raged through the house
like a man with a custom power tool through a federal grant program.
If Jesus saves, he must be saving up for something big, waiting for the last
possible moment which is what hardcore evangelicals think I guess but
those people really terrify me. In the City of Angels, chloride anions
in the light fixtures, cyanide in the sofas & baseboards & benzine in the air
while in the city of St. Francis, at sunset, a jobless man casts his line
from a dock to feed his family with fish that will kill them, hauling up bass
& white sturgeon from the shining blameless waters of the bay.
by Kim Addonizio
from Rattle Magazine
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.