I don’t like to live where the roads turn to ice,
but I do like to live where the people are wise
enough to drive a bit slower.
I don’t like to live where the air is so cold,
but I do like to live where the people are bold
enough for the days that are colder.
This is for my birthday–
a moment of quiet to write poetry.
Not silent, as I can still hear
the whisper of warm air from the register,
the chatter of my daughter,
the clank of the dishwasher,
the steps of my spouse–
all that I could wish for
for my birthday.
We are breathing with two nostrils now.
That is my new way of saying
“We are cooking with gas now!”
And we are.
Four burners and a griddle,
a broiler and an oven,
but no vent hood for the days we fire them all up.
Maybe that’s why I had a headache.
(No, not carbon monoxide; we let that out the back door.)
My own body was going without a vent hood.
But we are breathing with two nostrils now.
As we try to let food be our medicine,
we realize we may have been overdosing.
Drug abusers, especially over the holidays.
Listen to the rapid-fire voice at the end of the commercial:
“May cause upset stomach… lethargy…
May be habit forming.”
But please don’t stop taking your medicine.
What is a resolution without resolve?
About the same as a resolution with resolve.
Resolve to be a better person.
Come on, just try it.
She sat there, eating an entire pomegranate
(except for the pith and those few brown and cloudy seeds of course),
chewing each morsel enough for the juice to splatter against her cheek,
but not so much that she crushed the little seeds inside,
wondering how often to let herself indulge,
and how often to let the fruit stay in the land where the seeds could be of use.
I’m searching for something stimulating that will not wear me out,
for something I can smell through all the snot in my snout,
a way to escape the cold (both the sickness and the weather),
and, in a thought, (cough,) I just want to be better.