After 3 Days

by Jonathan Greenhause


 
ā€œFish & visitors stink after 3 days.ā€ 
                                                                - Benjamin Franklin 

On the 4th day, the visitors spontaneously combust, 
& on the 5th day, a fluorescent green aura 
hovers above their ashes. After 2 weeks, pilgrims arrive 
with dried marigolds & sea salt. Approaching a month, earth sunders, 
swallows the neighborhood whole. Soon afterward, 
God appears, isnā€™t recognized because 
no one was expecting a porcupine. The villagers 
slaughter God, reengineer the quills as writing instruments. Years go by, 
people still attending churches, temples, & mosques, unaware 
God is dead. Fishermen go on strike, 
simultaneously protest the governmentā€™s strict limits on catch 
& the oceanā€™s plummeting stock. This morning, 
guests show up on our dusty doorstep bearing gifts, so we shower them 
in asbestos, fling them & their flapping salmon 
back into the river, watch unmoved 
as they bob up & down, hoping to visit us upstream.

About the Author

Jonathan Greenhause was the winner of the Telluride Instituteā€™s 2020 Fischer Poetry Prize, and his poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in  FreeFall, The Ginkgo Prize for Ecopoetry, The New Guard, New York Quarterly, Poetry East, and RHINO.