in a world where entropy is reversed

the dust in your apartment settles in neat piles at the corner of the room

you ask for warm water, which eventually turns to ice

you toss the leaves of your term paper into the air just for them to land in a neat stack on your editor’s desk, sheets crisper, ink fresher, grammar impeccable, deadline rewound

the exodus of clothes from the dryer is a celebration of every pair of jeans resized and every pair of socks reunited

the wind smoothens pock-marks and the sun restores color to the walls of every abandoned building

after every, broken bone, tendons reconstruct ever-stronger tissues and purge every imperfection from your marrow

you fling yourself off the balcony just to land more whole than before

elderly synapses are the strongest; in old age, neural connections cling to the membranes of ever lissom hippocampi and limber limbic systems. all are subject to relentlessly reliving every moment; every instance preserved far too well.

as gravity compounds, the universe gets slowly smaller and smaller. the inevitability of compaction has made claustrophobes of us all.

This poem was originally published in Paragon Press in Aug. 2019.