By Miles Liss

The sky’s an orange river in this city of thieves.
Gray or blue, the clouds trail overhead.

This is no doomsday scenario
even if the world is slowly fading.
Everything’s rich with life, except maybe us.

Try not to think too much—
just listen—a drop of honey.

The clouds are heavenly silent. They pick up
the magenta of the sun and carry it with them
like a command across the sky.

Miles Liss is the 2021 winner of the AWP Kurt Brown Prize in Poetry. A collection of his poetry and art is forthcoming from Death of Workers Whilst Building Skyscrapers Press at https://www.deathofworkerswhilstbuildingskyscrapers.com. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, the poet Zakia Ahmadzai.