Lost Is the Story by Alexander Etheridge
Everyone loses their time at the same
rapid speed—it’s like flying shrapnel,
or a quickly strobing light.
We’re all moving into another
life, another dying.
The oceans feel it too--
and every tree churns quietly in its center
with the burning seconds.
Cities, deserts, mountains,
melt imperceptibly upward.
Radioactive breezes
float in through the open
windows—we disintegrate
down in our every atom.
We fall apart into airborne
graves. Look, ghosts crowd the streets,
and ancient nightmares
blaken the crops.
We fight it any way we can—
the fading light, our failing
hearts, the unthreading
of our minds. We look for home
everywhere, though we know it’s lost.
Now the moment’s
over, and our story is forgotten.
rapid speed—it’s like flying shrapnel,
or a quickly strobing light.
We’re all moving into another
life, another dying.
The oceans feel it too--
and every tree churns quietly in its center
with the burning seconds.
Cities, deserts, mountains,
melt imperceptibly upward.
Radioactive breezes
float in through the open
windows—we disintegrate
down in our every atom.
We fall apart into airborne
graves. Look, ghosts crowd the streets,
and ancient nightmares
blaken the crops.
We fight it any way we can—
the fading light, our failing
hearts, the unthreading
of our minds. We look for home
everywhere, though we know it’s lost.
Now the moment’s
over, and our story is forgotten.
Alexander Etheridge has been developing his poems and translations since 1998. His poems have been featured in Scissors and Spackle, Ink Sac, Cerasus Journal, The Cafe Review, The Madrigal, Abridged Magazine, Susurrus Magazine, The Journal, Roi Faineant Press, and many others. He was the winner of the Struck Match Poetry Prize in 1999, and a finalist for the Kingdoms in the Wild Poetry Prize in 2022.
