Remember that time when
we asked for directions,
and the guy at the gas station just said,
“You can’t get there from here.”
But the truth is,
you can get anyplace from anywhere.
You might need a bike, or a space ship,
or some good walking shoes, or five weeks,
but you can get there.
Maybe you just need to get back on the highway
and take a different exit
and ask a different guy for directions.
The Problem With You
You mean to tell me that there’s something
I could do better?
Really?
Have you not noticed all the things
you’ve been doing
not-quite-correctly?
I guess it just goes to show
sometimes we only notice the
faults in others.
Yes, that’s the problem with you.
Moles
I can wake up in the morning in this house,
at this latitude,
with this family,
at this age,
and open my eyes to see
these two moles
on my arm,
staring back at me,
reminding me that I am still the same person
as the little girl who first noticed them
on my skin.
Skill Share
What do you know, and what could you learn?
Let’s teach each other; we’ll all take turns.
I could teach about my life:
how to make good beans and rice,
how to cook sans rice and beans,
how to live within your means,
how to Spanish with your baby,
how to butcher chickens (maybe,
if I had my father’s help),
how to read books off the shelf,
how to fix your cracked-up plaster,
how to self-impose disaster…
I could teach a lot of things.
And now, what questions do I bring?
The question at the top of my mind:
Can someone teach me to find more time?
Blankets
Across the room, across the hall,
the sun is crossing over all
the blankets crossed across your bed,
the colors, blue and pink and red
and purple, too– the whole gamut.
Quilts from almost every grandma!
$6.50
The most fun I could have
on a Friday evening
with $6.50 in change
was most indisputably
to take the truck to the carwash
and spray
and spray
and spray.
Gold
The gold around my finger,
not only reminding me of who I’m married to,
but of course, the family I married into,
and also the family I come from,
and the fact that I just might be
slightly allergic to gold.