Such Value, Much Sleep, Wow by Keith David Parsons

Before I go to sleep

I like to count:

sheep

with golden fleece;

or

the flock’s productivity

measured in jouls;

or

the flapping bills

of fiat money

they are worth

in this country;

or

the lumpy nuggets

of their trade value

in gold

anywhere;

or

the stream

of unique numbers

representing a place

on a blockchain

in a cryptocurrency

that could be exchanged

on a market

for the sheep

or an equivalent group

of other such

fungible

ungulates;

or

anything else really;

as long

as it is also

imaginary.

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Keith David Parsons (he/his) is a native of West Virginia, USA, living in Washington, DC, and less conflicted about it than you might think. He believes a poem without a message is like a big hole without spikes at the bottom—why would you dig it? He is an organizing member of the DC Poetry Collective and is featured in iNK BLOTS Vol. 1 (available at DC bookstores) and iNK BLOTS Vol. 2 (coming soon!). Twitter: @kristophanes