✨ What Did You Do Last Week?
I wondered if...
What Did You Do Last Week?
I lay in bed and thought of the AA mantra
one day at a time and the Dolly Parton lyric
I’ve had to think up a way to survive
and the Becket line I can’t go on. I’ll go on.
I scattered a few bucks like birdseed to causes I care about.
I sat in meetings where there were calls
to order and motions on motions,
oceans of motions. Someone in the shadows
was always taking minutes. Taking minutes.I went for a walk in a wetland preserve
nestled between an asphalt company
and the county courthouse. A northern flicker
pecked for ground beetles. On its head:
a red brushstroke like an artist’s
afterthought. Or a warning. I wondered
if birds have blood. I wondered if the people
in power have feelings. I wondered
if we’ll go on. I told myself we can’t
not go on.I wrote this poem.
—Erin Murphy
From Human Resources: Poems, Grayson Books, Copyright © 2025. Used by permission of the poet. Photo by christie greene, Creative Commons, via Unsplash.





Human Resources is a wonderful collection. I think Erin Murphy is a brilliant poet.
The emphasis she placed on those two words - taking minutes - twists their meaning in so apt a way.
"oceans of motions"