The air is wet and heavy, as if rain might hide in the looming clouds that blot out the sun, but
YOU CAN NEVER KNOW
How they play in spite of what may or may not be coming, as if they have not a care in the world, and how I wish I could be like them, oblivious to
WHAT MAY BE COMING—
What might be asked of me. I had a dream last night, and it was a good one, but the good dreams never become what is
A LIFE OF GOOD AND PLENTY
Only the bad dreams seem like believable realities, because they are more deserved, perhaps. A black eye here, a deep wound back there, a damaged mind all around, they point to a shattered constitution.
OR A LIFE OF ANXIOUS WONDER AND EXTRAORDINARY TRANSFORMATION
And on any given day I don’t know which is better—the poetry of a disjointed life or the straight and narrow line that fragments in its own way, but on a good day, a more contemplative day,
I KNOW WHICH I’D CHOOSE
This is an excerpt from Textbook of an Ordinary Life: poems. For more of Rachel’s poems, visit her Reader Library page, where you can get a few volumes for free.
(Photo by @gebhartyler on Unsplash)
