Todd Campbell

Group Therapy

I’m the clamor of other people’s lives.
The census taker for the legions
of headless statues who guard
the roofless stone temples
of all those long-abandoned
ancient towns. The kitchen 

scrubbed clean, knives sharp.
The fragile truce between target
and arrow. The engine,
louder than thunder,
pulling a thousand-car train 

loaded with garbage that will rise
as fly ash and pestilence
from a smokestack on the far side
of the ever-churning sea. I am 

the answer I will fail to comprehend
for years after the question
no longer pertains. The small ship 

sailing toward the horizon I stare at
with utmost concentration,

knowing if I blink, it will

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Todd Campbell is a Seattle-based poet, speechwriter and mosaic artist. His poetry has appeared in Hobart, Reed Magazine and Sepia.