LatinosUSA

The sun is just the brightest star
and ice freezes hard as prison stone
in distant orbits out past Neptune—
that's where I'll go in exile.
 
I wrote letters to bored politicians,
marched in protests holding pithy signs.
I consumed less, preaching to the choir
but failed to convince the congregation.
 
So banish me to some distant rock
without enough gravity to stand.
I'll cling to rough pebbles
and watch the stars who shed no tears.
 
Never again to see the moldy green or livid blue
of this fevered planet as it burns off our infection.

Copyright © 2025 Bartholomew Barker
All Rights Reserved

Bartholomew Barker works with Living Poetry, a collection of poets in North Carolina. He has published a full-length collection and a chapbook, and he has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His work has recently appeared in Panoply, Tipton Poetry Journal, Free Verse Revolution, the Gyroscope Review, Naugatuck River Review, MasticadoresUSA, among others. www.bartbarkerpoet.com