Round-abouts reduce collisions and pollution, at least that\u2019s what we were told by the new leaders eager to keep the flow quiet and steady. Palapas are open air, usually round shelters\u2014a tiki hut with a woven palm-tree leaf roof to keep sun rays and bird droppings at bay, but unlike the umbrella, a heavy downpour will get through. I know\u2014how are demonic roundabouts and lazy palapas related? Well, like anything manmade and true, aliens have combined them and created an omniscient cover for every rotunda in town. No sunburns. No more racing through yellow lights. No more excuses.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hooray! We survived the shipwreck, the sneaky chloroform attack, ice-skating on the ruptured lake, the point of no return. Is there a trophy to commemorate this? Who knows. The day after the happy ending, we\u2019re still happy. It\u2019s too late to hold the elevator door open, but it\u2019s never too late to reach the heights of human drama. People like to survive, couple up, kiss at sunset, and pump out babies like those babies will never outgrow family time, dinnertime\u2014nine stories of toys plummet to the sea, and all that\u2019s left is bacon, omelets, sandwich shop reward cards, a torn pool table covered in apples, one watermelon, and seedless green grapes. Still recovering from last year\u2019s happy ending, we\u2019re not interested in rebirth\u2014only telling the story we had to tell which has been underrated, undersold, and yet, we continue singing our canticle to the sun, the sea, the unborn.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
________<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cat Dixon (she\/her) is the author of <\/em>Eva and <\/em>Too Heavy to Carry (Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2016, 2014) and the chapbook, <\/em>Table for Two (Poet’s Haven, 2019). She is a poetry editor at <\/em>The Good Life Review. Her newest poetry collection <\/em>What Happens in Nebraska comes out this fall.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"