Synkroniciti is delighted to welcome back Houston poet John Milkereit with a witty and humorous poem, “License Renewal.” Anyone who has waited in line at the DMV or navigated the frustrations, large and small, of any bureaucracy will identify with the petty absurdities of the process and admire John’s good-natured sense of humor. “ I’m still on Earth banking/ to stay in my lane. I will try not to activate someone’s rage// or mine. I admit there’s no fire extinguisher for various/ components of my personality.” John’s humor is more than funny, it provides a strategy for survival and a moment of connection that leads to empathy. Allowing ourselves to laugh shows that we have not lost our humanity, as does finding the surreal in our reality. This poem has a disarming, playful nature that invites us to do both.
Read “License Renewal” in Synkroniciti’s “Identity” issue, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/. John will be back in our upcoming “Recovery” issue.
John Milkereit is a law-abiding citizen of the world currently navigating the laws of being alive & staying legal. He’s been driving around Houston, Texas since the last century. He’s stopped to write a few poems, one in that Synkroniciti issue on Vulnerability. Vulnerability and now Identity. Then Recovery? Makes a lot of sense for him. He’s got an M.F.A. and some books. You can find him if you want to.