While Listening to the Evening News

by Alex Sy

The sky, the sudden flare—

the sky, vast, immeasurable.

The glare—see how we dare to risk falling off the cliff

high up

where the distant stairs declare allegiance

to this world. We claim to pull our hearts open,

to bear—

The highway lights in rows like aisle angels in heaven

melt in the eye. The mullahs in Iran convene

like crows. Meanwhile,

my people swarm

the floating Nazarene

as if everything depended on it.