Voicemail Poems

People fell in love during the fall of the Roman Empire and people were falling in love in 1930s Germany, the Nazis were coming into power and regular German citizens were going on dates and falling in love. I have new tires on my car so I feel invincible driving to you through the snow, I am driving to you and a song is on the radio that reminds me of you and I’m passing all these other cars because I have new tires and it’s snowing so hard but maybe I’m in love and I have to remind myself that happy people can still die in a car crash. There was happiness in 1930s Germany and at the end of Rome, too. Falling in love doesn’t do anything for the climate crisis, falling in love won't save democracy. It’s late-stage capitalism, it’s the fading days of the Anthropocene, new tires don’t save me from other drivers and love doesn’t save us from anything really, but isn’t it nice, for a minute in the snow, to feel so wildly protected? ————————————– Jill McLaughlin called us from Portland, ME. voicemai