Zillow
Wish these were real cigarettes. Wish that
the long clock never found us. Wish Church
& Clinton never got razed & re-written. Wish
the bath house was still on the corner. Wish
that summer you climbed to the top of the
tree next to your house hadn’t stopped.
Wish the tree hadn’t stopped. Wish
the house they built on the lot hadn’t
taken the tree. Wish I wasn’t on Zillow
looking at how much your mom’s house costs.
Wish it didn’t cost. Wish that summer hadn’t
cost. Wish these were real cigarettes,
wish this was a real letter, wish the long clock
of torn down trees & appreciating real estate
prices never found us.
“the wage is the price paid to relinquish claims
on fairness” Love is the price paid to relinquish
claims on fairness. Dishes are the price paid
to relinquish claims on fairness. Voting is
the price paid etc etc. That’s not it though. Death
relinquishes all claims on fairness.
I have trouble washing my own dishes
when I am paid to wash dishes. When I am in love
I make a show of washing dishes. A communist
in love has plenty of time to wash his lover’s dishes
& fantasize about a life of shared labor & no need.
A communist at work has no time to wash dishes.
A dead communist has no.
I’m sorry but I don’t have time to be
afraid of you today. I’m really quite busy.
There’s the laundry & the dishes & the groceries
& the mourning. Like anyone working from home
death gets bored. Is the plague the end of this empire?
Might be the end of mine (Cleveland poorly
insulated one bedroom) I heard the rate of profit
always falls. I heard Larry Summers has written
several books on the economics of
plague induced labor shortages.
To death everywhere
is a workplace. I play video games
about empire building in the
empire’s last days. To empire
Death is the workplace. I’m not
doing fan fiction I just like the
graphics of the map; tight reflection
on water, natural wonders, the torches
lit on the Apadana, the Eiffel Tower
sparking into fruition. Plus
for each hour on unemployment
I played video games God takes
an hour from the empire.
I play for this fantasy of symmetry.
Brendan Joyce
Brendan Joyce is a student at Cleveland State University, the co-organizer of Grieveland and the author of Love & Solidarity (2020) and Character Limit.