2 (on day 22)

I can’t write poems
I’m exporting email addresses from my job site
I can’t write poems I’m hanging up clothes
I can’t write poems I’m laying out pages 
     & stacking plates & tariff-proofing the kitchen
I can’t write poems when I’m grieving the post master
I can’t write poems because there are two crows harassing a hawk
     & the hawk is going down 
          if I know those crows
I can’t write poems when there’s a song in my head
     & it’s one with famously misheard lyrics
          “she’s so popular” is not even what it says
               but tell that to my earworm
I can’t write poems when the news is in my face
I can’t write poems—they stopped calling me years ago & I’m holding a grudge
I can’t write poems when I’m holding scissors 
     & feeling stabby
I can’t write poems because I’m measuring marginal variances
     & holding misalignments to the window
          & out the window the crows are looking smug
               & out the window the wind blew a 40-lb chair off the deck
I can’t write poems in a boat in the middle of a donut-shaped pond 
     called Third Pond or maybe it is Fourth Pond 
           but it’s certainly not called Poem Pond
I can’t write poems
I can’t write poems
I can’t write poems!