Plots for a Fresco On Planned Obsolescence

Like someone starts with a swarm 
of arrogant notions clenched
solid at a single point on the earth,
near a river or a road:

Maybe the consciousness stream from
the shadow who smokes 
his job through another thin roll?

Could be the coral vine screeding up
the fissured side of a brick wall
over the nest of a loggerhead?

What about the wolves haunting just
outside of the stripped town core, 
in harsh chorus, famished?

Lovers stumbling, gauzed 
in your bourbon mist?

Or another strange flock that,
from one in the long grass, shatters
to dozens across the sky –  

— CHRIS YURKOSKI

Chris Yurkoski is a writer of poetry (and occasionally book reviews and short fiction) living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He pays the bills by analyzing economic development and socio-economic related issues for the Canadian federal government. He has spent much of the pandemic period biking, investing in wine and waiting.