Adam Deutsch

Swapping Karma

That is to say, when we’re with people,
fully threaded together, an exchange is made,
and then there’s the ground wire that rattles contact
with bare surfaces, uncrimped of sheath, in the stereo’s back.

The signal’s mostly clear, flickering off in bumps,
car wheels, power pressed into the ruined road.
There’s always more to hear between beats in a driving
song. It’s interchange, an apathy or love kneaded in.

They take some of you, and leave bits of self
in that same etheria. Celery slices pulled from potato
onion stew, cubed chuck dropped in. A union,
the way our waitress marries the two unfull ketchups

the last task in a long shift, the work before clocking out,
a head for home to wash away kitchen greases, prepared
wrong orders. A veggie burger with bacon: the decision of a future
already in-progress. A sum in the trade. A wholesome alone.

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Adam Deutsch has work recently in Poetry International, Thrush, Juked, AMP Magazine, Ping Pong and Typo. He has a chapbook called Carry On (Elegies). He teaches in the English Department at Grossmont College and is the publisher of Cooper Dillon Books. He lives in San Diego, CA. AdamDeutsch.com