“Some Words for the Week”

Sometimes I’m the only one

going down the mountain

in the winter morning

the defrost on

the folk songs playing

the trees frosted

the river frozen solid

my body already sore

my fingers already cut up

from yesterdays work

while the rich and old

wake up slow

in their houses with foothill views

that they bought with

trust funds blood money

or other unearned violent fortunes

and they will horde

what they can until they die

and I will be in the canyon

driving up and down

to work on their houses

making the same wage

to pay for gas and cheap food

while the president is sixty years

older than me

and the rest of the government

is stagnant and elderly

and evil and corrupt

and sound nothing to fix

the ruin they’ve made

but condescend the young

and keep getting richer

on the backs of the rest

and I drive down the mountain

and I drive back up

and my degrees don’t matter

and neither does my poetry

not to pay the bills at least

and so I work and bleed

and drive and sweat

and nothing substantial changes

but the winter growing milder

and the bands I used to love

making corporate music

with no love or passion

in the lyrics of chords

so I listen to silence

in my car

alone in the morning

on my forty minute commute

beside the river

between the jagged cliffs

which will outlive us all

Alexander Shalom Joseph is a writer from Gilpin County. He has two published books and one more forthcoming in the Fall of 2022. For more information and to subscribe to Alexander’s Newsletter go to alexandershalomjoseph.com