August Thorn

Setting: A crowded departure concourse for a broken, underfunded train system in an improving, but problematic city train station. The subject: A mother.

10 minute delay.

Sitting in the living room

Watching the evening news,

Which you made me do,

Because it's “stimulating”

I wait until you called out

“Dinner!”

Lying on plush couches,

Scrolling mindlessly on TikTok,

Then David Muir says something.

“The Supreme Court is destroying democracy.”

The sky was red. 

Okay maybe it wasn’t completely red. 

Kinda orange. 

A scene from "Dune" when you think about it. 

Just bizarre. 

Down the Interstate, 

Stuffed in an SUV, 

A perfect suburban one. 

You shake your knees. 

Mom tells you to stop shaking. 

I got nothing. 

But this. 

It’s 1 AM. 

But the mind’s at work. 

Ideas come and go. 

Sleep sweeps away all of that.