KG Newman

The Sunsets in Our Heads

Coronavirus led to Chinese panic-buying
toilet paper, out-elbowing each other
for the last rolls of Charmin, and this was
before hysteria appeared in America
but after our queen drones
were infected with malware,
causing a distraction war as it
became unprofitable to wonder
the mood of your parents when conceived
or if world leaders were also hiding
scared in some cold, moldy bunker.

The grandmothers we’ve ignored
about proper ways to communicate
and the unbeatable taste of natural honey
don’t forgive us now, nor should they,
and in the new age
all that’s left is rocks along with
small gifts of incomprehension:

From the slits in the storm door
we thought we saw a vagabond white ox out
wandering around August’s nuclear winter,
followed by black buffaloes I recognized
as the ones who once led the procession
of flower carts into the evening market
before all the bees went extinct.

________________________________________________________________________________________

KG Newman is a sportswriter who covers the Broncos and Rockies for The Denver Post. His first three collections of poems are available on Amazon. The Arizona State University alum is on Twitter @KyleNewmanDP and more info and writing can be found at kgnewman.com. He lives in Castle Rock, Colorado, with his wife and two kids.