Two poems to share with you in this podcast episode!
Any Given Tuesday
I cannot tell
them what it’s like
in here, in my brain,
late September, facing down
another pandemic winter,
climate change placing our house
in a new tornado alley, the immediate world
divided:
red, blue,
pro, anti,
on and on,
while I try pointing my dials to
Function.
Ignore your tightly wound belly
and the tears streaming down your cheeks
because it’s not one thing
it’s all of it:
All of It.
All. Of. It:
We were not meant to hold this much pain
without being able to hold each other tightly,
physically, breathing in the same room.
Healing without holding hands is so much harder.
We continue to accrue layers of not-here,
stacking distraction
upon mess
upon dysfunction,
cynicism,
rot.
And still my brain demands it,
beneath the piles of wet cardboard
and the urine-soaked carpets of mind:
Just Function, Kalp.
Just remember how to write.
Just pretend it isn’t happening.
Just keep swimming.
Just
keep
swimming
Secrets
You taught me
so much more
than straight A’s ever could
just by popping the truck
intro neutral at the top
of the longest hill around
and refusing to brake
all
the
way
down
,
my little body
screaming and squealing
in delightful terror
as we picked up speed,
squiggling past more
and more houses,
all of me screeching along with the tires
in the deep trust of childhood
that can only be reached
before the world
does any real breaking:
we’re gonna die
but not right now
we’re alive
we’re alive
we’re alive
(…and, um, hearing about this would probably upset your mother.)
You showed me the places we can go
only with one another
and for no good reason,
just because it’s fun
to be
here.
Maybe this was your best-kept
secret to living:
all trust,
no breaks.
P.S. My book of poems is pay-what-you-can priced right here!
