Once in a while 

I walk around 

without headphones 

making sure that bees 

still to drift between small 

white flowers

forgive me I don’t know

their names

and that the air 

with all its particulates from construction

or traffic leaving and entering the city

still knows to flay petals 

to the pavement 

By the end

of this poem I will

have quit smoking 

And I will have learned

the name of this tree 

How to reclassify

the different chambers 

of the heart as seasons 

How desertification

is not only about leaving 

but staying gone 

I say hi

to my neighbor 

and he tells me again 

about the old factories

and jobs he was offered 

first arriving from a country 

erased only on maps

It’s nice to imagine

work as that simple

the ground that open

            and new

Nicodemus Nicoludis is a poet and adjunct professor at CUNY. He is the author of  the chapbook Natural History (rot house books, 2018) and his work appears in Potluck Mag, Maudlin House, Chronogram, Reality Hands, Burning House Press and elsewhere. He is also the Managing Editor of Archway Editions, a new literary imprint from powerHouse Books. He lives in Queens, NY.