April 22, 2025Growing Cynical
Sometimes, lately, I don’t believe it:
the news, the grocery store flyer hawking
deals on things I never buy.
Any speed limit, weather report,
my weight on the scale, even my bills.
I say to myself a likely story! Or
you’ve gotta be kidding. Hannah Arendt
wrote about this, how the lies
are not meant to fool us but teach
us in time to not believe anything.
Well, it’s working on me, Hannah.
I didn’t snap, I floated away
into some sort of muted universe
where my brain isn’t sharp
and doesn’t care, I’m back
in a middle-class San Francisco
childhood walking our beagle Skipper
up to the corner, around to the flat
part of the block and turning again
while she smells invisible
neighborhood news from curb
and driveway until I tug the leash
and say Come. She is a good dog
and comes. I can feel the edge
of a fog bank far out at sea, waiting.
from Poets Respond