a colleague wept

Written March 10th. Found poem written from the March 4th New York Times.

ready to begin talks:
a coordinated, commando-style ambush.
with eight dead in Lahore—a total security lapse—
a colleague wept Tuesday.

she came when the homeless people did,
no way to predict what the future of our relations might be.
“it’s off-the-charts good,” she cautioned,
“but the city is shooting itself in the foot.”
she just adored and loved me like a sister.
she would bring me apple pie.

we don’t engage in discussions
for the sake of having conversations—
we measure haul in verse.
we can’t just cut our way out of this situation.
50 years of practice is no help,
and even death is not an excuse when it comes to dodging the debt collector. 

Reviews

[H]

I love this, Chloe. It flows nicely and simply. You're going to be very famous one day.

[Tzedeqiel]

I've been skeptical about the merits of found poems in the past, but that was really clever. I never knew the NYT could supply so much interesting material. . . .

[Butterflymom]

WOW, this is an interesting and amazing piece of work. Well done, and brillant!