The Gorko Gazette

before the moon

before the moon the oceans were calm we could
paddle our boats safely fish plenty.
before the moon the air was still no storms
before the moon we lived in mist

before the moon we didnt care about gold
before the moon we had no masters
before the moon we had space to move—if
we didnt like a tribe or a leader we could

paddle down the coast or walk inland upriver
before the moon we didnt move rock with music
we didnt need to we didnt think to tell people
in the future that we were here that we survived

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the dance of entropy

the dance of entropy begins with heat
attracted to cold gathering to break
apart becoming which causes more heat
while traces of you stay present + make

our past feel determined while our future
feels open like we had a choice when we
cannot choose our past we cannot be sure
our heat determined our desire to be

the dance the blur the falling the apart
lipstick traces on a broken tea cup
lost heat—this is what we call deciding

effect from lost cause—the mind is the heart

everything blurs our heat rises up
the dance always ends with our dividing

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time arrow

emerging from the blur to ignorance
you feel time in yr equilibrium
our entropy speeds up into a dance
a piece of cosmos configuration

to which you remain variably blind
yr heat becomes + depends on what
I do not know—becomes the flow of time
in yr relation to another what

you choose a random arrow and call it
an arrow shoot yr arrow thru time
to split my arrow to be split by mine

the memory of our arrows is past
the coincidence of them is present
in this part of the becoming of time

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born in Puerto Rico, John Yohe has worked as a wildland firefighter, wilderness ranger and fire lookout. Best of the Net nominee x2. Notable Essay List for Best American Essays 2021, 2022 and 2023. @thejohnyohe www.johnyohe.weebly.com

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Image: Friedrich – Two Men Contemplating the Moon.jpg