Jaden Goldfain – for when the ordinary is just the ordinary

say the scars of the earth

aren’t asking to be sliced

today.

 

say i forget the stranger

as they drive away. 

 

say i don’t get in trouble

for kneeling outside

your lawn. 

 

say the tree doesn’t

feel like being climbed today,

or cut down,

or hugged. 

 

say i scream 

and no one looks. 

 

say i go to bed tonight

alive. 

 

say you’ve seen 

thousands of strangers

kneeling at your lawn. 

 

suppose poems

don’t need difference,

and when i pound my fists

to the lines,

scared that i don’t 

either, 

the words

barely rattle. 

 

suppose there is

no movement. 

 

suppose i miss it. 

 

suppose

i already have. 

 

suppose stillness

curls to safety 

 

and i leave be

 

and i leave be

 

and i leave

Jaden Goldfain is pursuing her M.A. in Writing from Point Loma Nazarene University. Her work has appeared in CERASUS Magazine, San Diego Poetry Annual, among others. She loves Jesus, her friends, and people who either don’t exist or don’t know she exists. Twitter (X?): @j_goldfain