How’s It Going

By: Kevin Grauke

Fine,    (but

sometimes it sinks, descending

from above, amoebic,

like a parachute

hovering above a body

dropped instead of carried.

Though shapeless, its form

fills all available space,

leaving no corner

or crevice unspoiled

by its smirches.

Sometimes it climbs, rising

from below, miasmic,

like an evening’s fog

in search of reckless flames

to dampen, douse.

Though wordless, its tidings

are never good, each time

reeking of rot as they

smother new growth

in night’s shade.

Sometimes it emerges

from within, organic,

like a virus

ravenous to replicate,

neither quick nor dead.

Though mouthless, its lips

whisper a language known

too well, reciting

a dissonant elegy

sung for years.

But most of the time

it’s nothing like any of this.   

Most of the time, in fact, it’s nothing

but an absence that absorbs

everything and leaves nothing.

Most of the time, its appetite

is inexhaustible. Most of the time,

it pauses only long enough

to say, I’m nothing, and have always

been everything).

How about you?

How are you doing?

---

Kevin Grauke has published work in such places as The Threepenny Review, The Southern Review, Quarterly West, Ninth Letter, and Cimarron Review. He’s the author of the short story collection Shadows of Men (Queen’s Ferry Press), winner of the Steven Turner Award from the Texas Institute of Letters. Bullies & Cowards is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in 2026. He lives in Philadelphia.

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