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Published: Wed Apr 15 2020
Salman Toor, Fag Puddle with Candle, Shoe, and Flag (detail), 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, N.Y. Photo: Farzad Owrang.
People at Yellow Lights Scrolling

people walking downstairs tapping   people
opening doors clicking   people on toilets scrolling

clicking my witching rod   pining
for escape   people crossing streets tapping

people watching kids climbing   clicking people
my pocket-sized trap door   what I

touch most in a day   if everyone does it it’s okay
my fingers skitter like wings over five-inch screens

jitter patterns through minutes   I used to
pick up my head   look around

the sprawl is inside me now
people in meetings   scrolling   frowning

people weed-wacking   clicking   people
jogging   tapping   A guy who used to work

for Facebook tells me They know exactly how to
_hook you   Don’t feel bad about being addicted  _ So I shouldn’t

feel guilty for texting when my friend is telling
me a story   when my kids are yelling for help

when the light is yellow   people
at stoves tapping people on bikes scrolling

scrolling   people kissing   clicking people
clicking   scrolling   people tapping

clicking   people   I just have to check this one thing
scrolling   clicking scrolling   people

My son tells me how he ends his bad dreams: I blink

See what's inside AGNI 91

Emily Mohn-Slate is the author of The Falls, winner of the New American Poetry Prize (forthcoming, New American Press, 2020), and Feed, winner of the Keystone Chapbook Prize (Seven Kitchens Press, 2019). Her poems and essays can be found in New Ohio Review, Tupelo QuarterlyAGNI, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. She lives and teaches in Pittsburgh, where she is part of the Madwomen in the Attic writing workshops at Carlow University. (updated 4/2020)

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