Between Two Worlds | BY PUMA PERL

The day after, 2016. Sky, gray, colorless.

Lower East Side streets silent, locked down.

Nobody knew what to say, where to look.

“Good Morning” greetings sounded almost obscene.

Last night, rather than witness the country turning

red, I decided to walk my dog, Fae. Through

the Vladek Housing, onto Grand, back around Jackson,

down Water, fewer than a dozen people to be seen.

I stopped at a store and bought chocolate,

but once home found I had no appetite for it,

nor any desire for the Kettle-One sitting in my freezer.

Shutting down the electronics, I discussed

my feelings in a long conversation with the dog.

Turned out I was talking to a black sweater

curled up in Fae’s usual corner of the leopard couch.

Picking up on my anxiety, she’d crawled into the closet.

The day after, 2024. The sky is ridiculously, horrifically,

bright, almost a 9/11 blue, November temperature over 70.

Will the earth ever forgive us for what is to come?

Unlike 2016, people are out walking, talking, expressing anger,

fear, confusion; still, we are numb, unsure of the next steps.

Everything except the future seems frivolous

and the future is too frightening to contemplate.

In my building, many neighbors are doing their laundry.

Because we have to do something when, overnight,

our housing and existence feel more fragile than ever,

and at least we can try, desperately, to stay clean.

Life, whatever that means, needs to go on, art and music

and books and dogs and family and friends need to go on,

and my need for a salon appointment needs to go on, too.

I text Joey Hair: Even though Trump will probably cut our heads off,

I still have to reschedule our appointment.

He responds: I’ll find a date before they round me up for the camps.

Tonight, we’ve scheduled a rehearsal, and another on Sunday,

and a record release party on Tuesday; we have our bodies,

our minds, our souls, our art, a little hope, the sun rises,

the music plays, the dogs bark, and we struggle, but we go on.

Puma Perl is a poet and writer, with five solo collections in print. The most recent is Birthdays Before and After (Beyond Baroque Books, 2021). She is currently at work on a sixth, for Punk Hostage Press. She is the front woman and lyricist for The Puma Perl Band and a new album, “Under Tenement Skies,” was recently released. Perl has received four New York Press Association awards in recognition of her journalism. Her most recent books can be found by clicking here.

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