the burden of driving the hundred miles
to visit friends or family, to consult on a project
— that length of time, those dangerous roads —
so one stays home, looks out the same windows
onto the same trees, grass, driveway, road
yet what comfort the known brings, the one mug
filled with the favorite tea . . . I am most at risk
between five & seven am, the time when I wake
& make tea & read headlines reporting the latest
obscenities — South Carolina executes a man
by firing squad, Israel kills 87 Palestinians
our dumb fuck president spews nonsense
enables morons, deports & kills people —
yet the day begins, I divert myself, Homer
diverts me, my ignorance consoles me
