from LEAP YEAR

May

^
May Day
May Day

^
More than 2,000
Students arrested

^
A spring of
Encampments

^
The cherry blossoms
Have come and gone
In an instant

^
Increasingly hostile
Soundscapes

^
I hope your gala was worth it

^
We’re in the weeds again

^
Drowning over here
In the dogma

^
Your driver is close by

^
I’ve gotten ahead of, no
Ahold of myself
But not of you

^
All the things our mothers
Never had the chance to do

^
A future measured in rosemary

^
Without bay leaves
Your fear of sharp edges

^
Tanks in residential areas
Rain on the glass

^
It must have taken a lot
For her to call me

^
Which reminds me
Of all we lost by
Not asking

^
This has been happening
For longer than we realized

^
The reverberations
Have been happening
All along / as though
We are still / at the center
Of the gong

^
Another helicopter
Lost in the fog

^
Another coup has failed

^
Today is your birthday
We’ll have cake
Maybe go bowling

^
The plane dropped dramatically
Launched the passengers
Into the cabin ceiling

^
Clear air turbulence
As the air warms at higher
Altitudes

^
I can’t sleep at all
The hot night before
A storm breaks

^
Galaxies collide
And we’re only just now
Hearing of it

^
My nephew’s fifth birthday
All that one hand holds

^
Air strikes hit the camps and
They had to pull the children out
In pieces

^
It’s unbearable
And yet we make them bear it

^
A masters in revolution
You never asked for

^
Doesn’t the old armory look nice
Afire in the evening light

^
It’s pay day and
We need to clean house

Jessica Rogers-Cerrato is an archivist, poet, and writer living in Providence, RI. Her critical work focuses on decolonizing archival description, diasporic archives, the outrider tradition of poetry, and archiving experimental writing and performance. Her poetry and prose can be read or heard in various places, and she is the author of the chapbook Hot Water (Cy Gist Press).