Elizabeth Scanlon

HOW WE WERE CHANGED

Lying on your stomach
even in your own bed
hits different after seeing
the near dead every night
on the news, prone and diapered

Forgetting how to talk to cashiers

Being now about 100 years
since leaving the house felt fine
It’s hard to be morally superior in sweatpants

Some celebrate their love
with bloody red meat, I’ve noticed,
or aggressively the opposite
Like all molten chocolate

I would like to dissolve more
past the confines of time
Salt in water

Putting the days to bed like children
the same routine every night
shushing them along

Assuring them we will try again tomorrow

I don’t know why we are still filling our days with events

ELIZABETH SCANLON is the Editor-in-Chief of The American Poetry Review. Her poems have appeared in many magazines, including Boston Review, Poetry Ireland, and Poetry London. She is the author of Whosoever Whole (Omnidawn, 2023), Lonesome Gnosis (Horsethief Books, 2017), and Odd Regard (ixnay press, 2013).