no more fussy and frugal
infinitives have broken free
prepositions are leaping off ledges
apostrophes have mostly walked off the job
adverbs sadly forever shunned
hide in shadows

what a time we are living in

words tossed like salad
spoken in the finest Orwellian doublespeak
simulate erudition
the lies soaking up the spotlight cast no shadows
bullets fly in staccato formation
leave us crying more tears
than rivers could ever hold

rivers overflow their banks
break through dams
uproot trees
smash through facades
rushing waters topple the edifices of our imagination
all notion of safety fades
into a painting of a past
left out to dry in blistering sunlight

Emily-Sue Sloane is an award-winning poet whose work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, as well as on WNYC’s Morning Edition. She is the author of full-length collection We Are Beach Glass (2022) and chapbook Disconnects and Other Broken Threads (The Poetry Box, March 2024). Sloane lives in Huntington Station, NY, with her wife, singer-songwriter Linda Sussman.