I live on the West Coast, and this morning around 9, I woke up with a strong seizing feeling in my gut. The sense was: pay attention — and this was to something in the collective, not something in the singular. I watched the high ceiling of the room. As the clock moved across the noon hour in DC, I could feel a faint sucking of magic from the light on the walls. It was as if something had left, not just this room, but reality itself. I am here to observe this absence, as perpetrated on the day of the inauguration.  I’m a poet living in Oakland, California. I also live with a mild brain injury, which makes life a more interesting, and perhaps more heartfelt experience. It forces me to be in the moment, and to constantly be coming across my limitations. It also helps me to see my shared fate and appreciate living in the world with other struggling beings. http://www.antiquatedfuture.com/books/aloft-alight-gaia-thomas/