You’ve been
walking backwards
             for so long

it doesn’t feel
             so awkward
anymore.

             In fact, it has
become the norm
             to claim your side

just scored. The goal
             has always been
to pass along

             the road from
Washington
             to nowhere,

this can that’s
             taken on
the contour

             of an intricately
dinted, infinitely
             polyhedral

soccer ball.
             You’re hoping
there’s some road

             to go yet
so that when it’s
             your turn

you won’t turn
             to find a wall,
given that all

             the experts
you have heard
             have warned

that the can,
             once opened,
is sure to air

             a generation’s
worth of
             worms

and that whoever
            opens it
will be the one

            who has to blink
into the light
            and squirm.

This article appears in March 2 2020.

Amit Majmudar is the author of Black Avatar: and Other Essays and Twin A: A Memoir. He works as a diagnostic radiologist in Westerville, Ohio.