These Days

by Cindy Hochman

These days I don’t stop and smell the plumerias because climate change has made my allergies run rampant. These days I don’t go to the movies because, well, Netflix. These days I don’t go to bars because I’m never in time for last call. These days I don’t take long walks because my legs are stiff, creaky, achy (and feel free to add in some more painful adjectives if you are so inclined). These days I don’t watch the news (for obvious reasons). In my next poem I promise to tell you all the wonderful things I do these days.

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Cindy Hochman is the founder of "100 Proof" Copyediting Services and the editor-in-chief of the online poetry journal First Literary Review-East (which only takes poems 16 lines and under). Her latest chapbook is Telling You Everything (Unleash Press, 2022). She resides in Brooklyn, New York, where she reads, writes, edits, meditates, learns tai chi, studies the Russian language, and agonizes over politics.