Vodka in the Freezer
once,
everyone I knew
left me at the same time.
in this world,
I can still communicate
with the people I love.
my addictions prepared me for this.
I have been defeated by,
and championed over,
isolation.
in this world,
I do not wake up
every morning
wondering if it’s all my fault,
if they’ve all gone way
because of me;
if I will always be
alone forever.
in this world,
there is not a bottle of vodka
yelling at me from my freezer;
the night I poured it out,
was the greatest act of courage
I have ever shown.
in this world,
I inherited a medallion that says,
“to thine own self be true,”
and know that,
for a year and two months,
I have done this.
in this world,
we are not so alone;
we are all ricocheting together,
amazing that,
with all this space,
we can still be so blessedly entwined.
puddles
we return to the rain again.
unable to get away from each other lately,
one of us stuck in the clouds,
one of us stuck in this house.
we splashed our feet in puddles,
threw our arms to redirect
our overrun emotions.
we jumped, we laughed,
we forgot about the indoors.
we stayed up late by candlelight,
constructing coffee table puzzles
and listening to old songs.
we laid, we drank,
we forgot about the outdoors.
all the while, the rain came down.
pollution paused.
not a word left in the street except
the barking of a dog.
sunday nights were always still,
but this is truly silence.
except for us.
we crash through it.
we defy the silence spreading through our streets,
two rainsoaked feet at a time.
we can learn to live like this,
but not forget the joy
we used to know
in the company of strangers
and the tapestry of places.
when we return to bed,
I grasp for words,
and bring them forth,
so we do not fall
quietly to this new world.
the rain may wash the hurt away,
but in my head,
the past still burns
like gasoline on fire.
Caleb Knight is a writer and musician living in Washington, D.C. Originally from Battle Creek, Michigan, Knight moved to D.C. in 2019 to begin work with the education-focused non-profit organization, City Year. A well-travelled musician, Knight is a relative newcomer to the world of poetry, and is excited to be learning and growing as a poet and a person by practicing this craft. While he has no formal training as a writer, he will be heading to Montclair State University in the fall to study Music Therapy and Creative Writing and looks forward to continued explorations of the important conversations taking place through the medium of poetry.