Not the Forest but the Roots
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Self-Portrait with Sink Full of Dishes
I have plants in my windowsill, but I can’t decide
if I have them just because I think they’re pretty
or for better, nobler reasons than that, like reducing
the carbon in the air or for their own intrinsic value
as living things. I need to clean the drawers of my
refrigerator. I can’t decide if I should use shampoo
every other day or every third day, because I’ve only
just recently started actually taking care of my
hair. Sometimes I forget to take my medicine.
Sometimes I “forget” to take my medicine, but really
it’s too much work to take it. Sometimes I worry I’m
selfish, like a black hole that takes and takes and
doesn’t give anything except the chance to orbit
around a center of gravity, or something to ponder
and calculate. I’m sorry for using a black hole as a
simile. I think it’s better left on its own. I want to
be a better man, but right now the sink is full of dishes
and there’s mold growing in my shower. After I’ve
done laundry, I tend to leave it on the floor for long
periods of time, days and weeks. I don’t know the
names of very many species of local birds.
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Zeke Shomler is a queer transgender poet pursuing a combined MA/MFA at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. His work has appeared in Microfiction Monday, Canary, and After Happy Hour Review, and his poem “Necessities” received an Honorable Mention in the 2023 Alaska Statewide Poetry Contest. You can find him on social media @zekeshomler.
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Stone Poetry Quarterly 