Many moons have risen and set
over the desert since quarantine
began, and now

I am losing steam

Stopped reading my horoscope

I get high earlier and earlier in the day

A method to combat my mounting stress
as this country chugs up and up towards
the evasive summit of this pandemic

Surely there must be some other way
to transform all this nervous energy

than digging my heels deep into the
locomotive floor, through iron
and dirt below

But the usual channels are blocked

Besides, nothing I write can stop the days
from passing

One into the next like railroad track
building itself beneath each spark
thrown by another revolution of steel

Or keep our unqualified conductors
from ushering us forward, foaming
at the mouth, closer and closer to

the end of the line

A train wreck the people won’t survive, but
the economy will.

– mrg