✨ What Did You Do Last Week?

I wondered if...

What Did You Do Last Week?

1. 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.
   

2. I scattered a few bucks like birdseed to causes I care about.
   

3. 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.

4. 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.
   

5. 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.