Those lives gone // Chicago moments

Frank Karioris 

Frank Karioris

Out from the window
            I see the towers
peering
            from sunrise to sunrise, 

their tips lit
            in colours
so we may
know the worlds with them,
so we may
have more north stars
            in this time of need.  

Greetings & hellos
aren’t hushed or hurried
            but manage
to still grapple with the
tenseness of being here,
being now, being.  

            Senses of panic recede
            while the ‘normal’ ness of
            it all begins to grind &
            hum in the handwashing
            & locked in-ness of all.  

            Art is defining
the world anew
amidst
            a disjuncture,
so is living.  

Even in quarantine             

two people can
walk the street together
     & share hands wrapped tightly.

Frank G. Karioris (he/they/him/them) is a writer and educator based in Brooklyn whose writing addresses issues of friendship, masculinity, and gender. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Pittsburgh Poetry Journal, Collective Unrest, Maudlin House, Sooth Swarm Journal, and Crêpe & Penn amongst others. They are a regular contributor to Headline Poetry & Press. @FrankGKarioris