Not Apartments Because They are Stuck Together

The size of a condo is meant to squeeze
so we will never again see the drizzle
of wood grain on the side of a bookshelf
or get to spoon on a wide-enough couch.

The size of a condo is cut to coerce
us to adopt the life of a dispossessed serf.

The size of a condo lease when it’s signed
costs the same as a rural hoarder’s horde,
plus interest; charged to the uninterested parties
who become homeowners but landless.
No interest in the future of environment or land.
A contract for taxpayers floating in a futureless fee rise
higher and high-rising taxed honeypot for fees.

The size of a condo is measured in discards
thrown in garbage bags on suburbanite curbs.

The size of a condo is measured in water pressure
vertical under a view. A spectacular view.
The lights and the traffic, and the balcony sounds,
fantastic features glinting with the night sky
of the condominiums
across the street.





Canadian researcher Terry Trowbridge’s poems have appeared in The New Quarterly, Carousel, subTerrain, paperplates, Dalhousie Review, untethered, Nashwaak Review, Orbis, Snakeskin Poetry, American Mathematical Monthly, M58, CV2, Brittle Star, Lascaux Review, Carmina,, Progenitor, Muleskinner, Sulphur, Northridge Review, Ex-Puritan, Perceptions, Granfalloon, Literary Hatchet, Calliope, New Note, Confetti, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, and more. He is grateful to the Ontario Arts Council for grant funding during the polycrisis.