“Ever human-centric/We self-aggrandized/Anthropomorphized/And now agonize.”
Shifting Patterns
I
Talking about the weather
Used to be quaint—
The nuclear option among
Neighbors and strangers
When all else failed.
Now we’ve really failed:
This summer—another’s winter—
Records meant to be shattered
Stationary domes and sacrificial heat
While we withdraw, shutting ourselves in.
A home’s sanctuary
For those gifted with recourse.
II
I live in the North but hail
From warmer climes.
Winters here claim their toll
Though locals insist—
Will have it otherwise—
We had real winters back then
I listen and nod, not agreeing
And feeling all too well
The cold that burns
Fingers resigning themselves to the insensate.
Spread your gospel elsewhere
I say without speaking.
Having lived through one or five will do for me
Though they’re probably on to something:
This is not my father’s winter.
III
Be this the new norm
I suggest recalibrating.
What once was four is fast
Becoming three then two—then what?
Seasons coalesce:
it’s either/or, all or nothing
Extremes are what they are—
What we have to show for as
Guest-occupants once stewards.
Easy to overlook the promise
We saw in ourselves.
A child learns to walk
We strove, made progress
Coming out on top—
Or so we thought.
Ever human-centric
We self-aggrandized
Anthropomorphized
And now agonize.
This is the new norm:
Believe it.
The Rose
for Cathy
Its bed—not moist, but wet—lies muddied. Puddles
unevaporated at this morning hour
lie-in-wait. A sun’s ascent translates
their decline. In due time, baked clay.
When the storm passed through last night, I woke up
(pluvial white noise) chasing yet again
the dream. Hardly within reach, I groped,
tried touching—breaking—the shell that encloses.
A memory falters. When I close my eyes
your image wanes. A damselfly lands then leaves
my arm. Hovering—an instant in suspension—
our eyes regard the other. I marvel just how
quick things dry, tracing cracks in the
dirt. As in defiance, a rose blossoms.
Philip Miller has been previously published in The Rumen. He currently serves as Assistant Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Music Theory & Composition at the Ingesund School of Music, Karlstad University in Sweden. As a graduate student, he studied creative writing with David Wevill at the University of Texas, and he has worked one-on-one in a professional workshop with Matthew Limpede, publisher of Carve magazine.