Hands, or The First Monday in November

I refuse to live my

life in Standard Time.

Fall an hour back

because the light’s

a fickle mofo.

I’ll play the early warbler,

chow my breakfast full of worms,

or at least my Cap’n Crunch.

I’ll pour yours out

as well while you’re a-snore,

make it Sergeant Soggy

with my milk.

You can watch

my sardonic wave

from the mountaintop,

inhaling my cup of java

you’ve yet to forge,

skiing down the slope

you’ve still to climb. I don’t care

if there’s snow or not.

When I was your age, I went trick-or-

treating in a blizzard. Of course in

naked feet. Folks will give

the most peculiar looks—

when you say you’re just

a streaker. I guess that’s not a

thing these days

and I have obviously digressed.

My past will be your present,

my in-the-now

a future you’ll wait to touch—

shove that in your Birkenstocks,

you would-be Buddhist bums.

I pity the bleating muttons

who do what they are told,

pulling the big hand back

like it’s the brake on a bullet

train, then shunting in reverse

only to live the same hour

again. Take a flying leap. I was

retching in the bathroom

from some just-expired chicken.

There isn't any way

I am going through that again.

This isn’t Groundhog Day.

But go behind, be Bill

fucking Murray if you want.

I swear y’all have blood

upon your hands. Someone’s death

might not have happened if you

left things as they were.

The school bus at the crossing

where it otherwise wouldn’t

be, sideswiped past the guardrails,

children tumbling over

like they’re bones

in a game of craps,

when they should have been snug

& safe within their desks—

learning about the dials of the sun,

trustworthiness of shadows,

that the rooster is more reliable

than us all—

not dependant on the driver

with his foot stomped on the pedal

as the cacophony begins:

the blink & flash of scarlet;

the brash & clangy bells;

thinking that he's gotta

take a risk, worried he will surely

lose his job,

has to save some time already gone.

Andreas Gripp

November 4, 2025

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