by John Dorroh
Watering Flora at Night during the Anthropocene
There is a breeze though no front coming
or
what is the weather any longer
The rain in the barrel changes speed
or
my existential crisis has a sound
Tomorrow morning there will be a full moon
or
I take my morning jog for others as much as for me
Standing on the surface of a waning moon we’d appear as a waxing earth in half-light and shadow
and
What would it take for there to be a new earth
How many more full moons will we see
Give me all of what is left
I will take them all
or
A hopeful wind grazes my chin but
No heart swell tonight
I deserve a fuller tide
Kenneth J. Pruitt is a teacher at heart who works as a diversity professional in healthcare. Recent publications can be found in Rain Taxi, Nine Mile, and The Rumpus. He lives in South St. Louis City with his wife and son. Find him on Twitter at @kennethjpruitt.
John Dorroh is too easily distracted from things that matter. He seems to thrive best in quiet places with few people who, for the most part, talk too much. ‘I asked a friend if she’d seen the strange and beautiful clouds yesterday, and she looked at me as if I might be bonkers.’ Perhaps the pandemic has caused him to pay attention to the natural world. He’s a Southerner living in the Midwest where you can clearly see weather fronts coming in. He is a frequent contributor to Feral and many other journals. His cell phone photography once paid for a nice meal at a sushi restaurant.