{"id":971,"date":"2022-02-22T18:09:31","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T18:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/oe\/?page_id=971"},"modified":"2022-02-22T18:11:04","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T18:11:04","slug":"two-poems-helgeson","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/oe\/past-issues\/2021-edition\/two-poems-helgeson\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kristi Helgeson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working the Liberty Bay Cafe Closing Shift<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Couples move in and out in rhythm <\/p>\n\n\n\n

to water on the jetty, snapping <\/p>\n\n\n\n

sunset selfies between happy hour <\/p>\n\n\n\n

sliders, truffle fries, and Poulsbo Porter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the window you see local junkies that use <\/p>\n\n\n\n

our bathrooms to pop counterfeit pills from China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In three hours, they\u2019ll rummage the dumpster <\/p>\n\n\n\n

for what you\u2019ve already cleared from table nine;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grass-fed Skagit Valley filet mignon ordered <\/p>\n\n\n\n

rare, served medium, and three-fifths<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of the crab Alfredo special ordered <\/p>\n\n\n\n

by the woman at table twelve to prove<\/p>\n\n\n\n

she\u2019d overcome her eating disorder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the bar closes at 2 a.m. and the <\/p>\n\n\n\n

streetlights play on the water, you\u2019ll wipe tables <\/p>\n\n\n\n

and mop floors and synanthropic wildlife <\/p>\n\n\n\n

will enter the scene, stage left\u2014crow, rat, raccoon\u2014 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

noses down, sniffing and scratching <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the asphalt under your car tires, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

digging for the human word for more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Autoplay<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay awake <\/p>\n\n\n\n

just a little longer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

avoid happy dreams<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in Costco clamshells<\/p>\n\n\n\n

pallets of stars <\/p>\n\n\n\n

stacked by forklifts\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thanks be to factory <\/p>\n\n\n\n

workers from afar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, we long for dark empty rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some find them in tiny pills<\/p>\n\n\n\n

YouTube on autoplay\u2014 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when night drops its curtain<\/p>\n\n\n\n

70 inches of pixels illuminate faces <\/p>\n\n\n\n

behind walls and windows\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, Great Box of Blue Light, say <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kristi Helgeson * Working the Liberty Bay Cafe Closing Shift Couples move in and out in rhythm  to water on the jetty, snapping  sunset selfies between happy hour  sliders, truffle fries, and Poulsbo Porter.  From the window you see local junkies that use  our bathrooms to pop counterfeit pills from China. In three hours, they\u2019ll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":519,"featured_media":0,"parent":920,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-971","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/oe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/oe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/oe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/oe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/oe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=971"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/oe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":974,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/oe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/971\/revisions\/974"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/oe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/oe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}