{"id":5916,"date":"2020-12-16T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T09:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridareview.cah.ucf.edu\/?post_type=article&amp;p=5916"},"modified":"2020-12-16T09:00:06","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T09:00:06","slug":"act-now-more","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/act-now-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Act Now + more"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Act Now<\/h3>\n<p>When I\u2019m low, I hang out<\/p>\n<p>with the slugs and sugar ants,<\/p>\n<p>I ignore the emails, <em>You will run out<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>of storage in the cloud<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 120px\">The clouds<\/p>\n<p>will always make space for me,<br \/>\nI already live in a fog<\/p>\n<p>and there\u2019s always room for more<\/p>\n<p>photos, a virtual bookcase.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 120px\">As much as I love<\/p>\n<p>being able to type my sadness<\/p>\n<p>to a stranger, my screen sometimes<\/p>\n<p>reaches out and puts its hands<\/p>\n<p>on my hips\u2014<em>stay here a little longer<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;padding-left: 120px\">I know I\u2019m brave<\/p>\n<p>when I leave my earbuds on the table<\/p>\n<p>next to my cat. And when my stomach<\/p>\n<p>knots, it\u2019s because I\u2019ve hit <em>reply all<\/em><\/p>\n<p>and now Dick knows he\u2019s living<\/p>\n<p>out his name like a job description.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 120px\">This is when I know<\/p>\n<p>I need to stand up and stop<\/p>\n<p>being another head without body, a mind<\/p>\n<p>plus fingers typing. Sometimes<\/p>\n<p>when I\u2019m walking down the street<\/p>\n<p>a neighbor runs up to me to tell me<\/p>\n<p>how Crossfit is working for her,<\/p>\n<p>I press <em>Skip ad<\/em> until I see the real-time video<\/p>\n<p>of Max, the dog who lives three doors down<\/p>\n<p>and is dealing with depression<\/p>\n<p>because his owner just died.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 120px\">This is when I reach down<\/p>\n<p>and wipe the goo from Max\u2019s eyes,<\/p>\n<p>and realize how much happier I am<\/p>\n<p>when I sit in the middle of empty road<\/p>\n<p>under an unlimited sky<\/p>\n<p>holding a dog who has no idea<\/p>\n<p>why his owner isn\u2019t coming home.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>If We Had Better Lighting,\u00a0Our World Would be a Soap Opera<\/h3>\n<p>Global warming is more than me leaving<\/p>\n<p>the heat on 80 degrees in the guest room.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a shadow on our planet\u2019s lung<\/p>\n<p>and the narrow road is what we drive now<\/p>\n<p>because half of it has slid into the ocean.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We are living longer, but we&#8217;re doing it with less<\/p>\n<p>sex and friends. The view from here is gorgeous,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>but who to share it with? I am watching the world<\/p>\n<p>turn, <em>all my children <\/em>becomes <em>all my adults<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>I try to count our steps to the grave\u20145, 100,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>1000? More? I&#8217;m less than optimistic.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m the character who is drinking wine<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>at noon in her nightgown. The soap operas<\/p>\n<p>are failed decisions and mistakes are real life<\/p>\n<p>choices. Global warming makes my cheeks<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>flush. Climate change is another way<\/p>\n<p>to introduce myself, to undress and dive<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>into the ocean that wants to swallow me.<br \/>\nLet me cry dramatically before the scene ends,<\/p>\n<p>let the director drag me to the shore.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Sunflower, What Have You Gotten Yourself Into<span style=\"font-size: 50%;vertical-align: super\">1<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Tonight a neighbor told me how climate change<\/p>\n<p>was a hoax as we stood under an orange sky<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>from the smoke of wildfires and when he coughed<\/p>\n<p>because the air quality was not good enough<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>for his lungs I said, <em>It hasn\u2019t rained for years<\/em><\/p>\n<p>and when the birds started falling from the sky<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>he said, <em>That happens sometimes, it\u2019s cyclical<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>God bless the confused, I said to the waves<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>reaching over into our yards, to the oceans<\/p>\n<p>so warm the icebergs are the ice cubes<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>the barista places into our lattes, <em>this should <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>cool it. <\/em>And at night when I walk home<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>in a tank top because what was once a winter<\/p>\n<p>is a mild spring, I lean back and watch the bats<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>circle and eat up whatever insects we have<\/p>\n<p>too many of and I think <em>my god, we fucked this up <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>so quickly, <\/em>as I admire the moon that almost winks<\/p>\n<p>at me, as if it knows how many years we have left. <em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><span style=\"font-size: 50%;vertical-align: super\">1<\/span>Title from a line by Kim Rashidi.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I\u2019m low, I hang out \/ with the slugs and sugar ants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5920,"template":"","categories":[9,49,119],"tags":[6,1739],"class_list":["post-5916","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-literary-features","category-poetry","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-kelli-russell-agodon"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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