BECAUSE. by Jay Passer

because I'm catching up on the black bear's 

hibernation

because the curtain leaking in paltry morning

light

because the 6 AM meat truck vibrates with refrigerated

butchery

because I crack my knuckles and toes reading Bulgakov in

bed

because my eyelids are closed to the policies of the alien

overlords

because I stretch out

while the cosmos

cry out in celebratory

fervor

because some half-wit was elected king of the

clowns

because I've got you next to me whispering while immersed in

dream

Jay Passer's work has appeared in print and online since 1988. He is the author of several chapbooks and has appeared in a bunch of anthologies. His latest collection, they lied to me when they said everything would be alright, from Pski's Porch, is available at Amazon. Passer lives and works in San Francisco, the city of his birth.