writing is not for the stable or sane

Once,

a man said to me,

“when you are happy,

and stable,

you will you be able to write.”

That’s not,

unfortunately,

how it works.

Writing is not for the stable

(or sane)

if evidence is to be gathered from

any other poet that has ever written.

Poets traffic on the bridges

between good and evil

love and loss

pain and healing

I walk

over one bridge,

back again.

But to stop traveling? 

no, no

we're like those fish

that die if they stop swimming.

stability, and sanity, will kill
(our creativity)

Our job is one of reconciliation -

somehow

we must find a way to speak

to the love

and pain

inside of us. 

and to figure out

(if we can)

some way to live with both.

self-sufficient

i was taking a beach day 

but he borrowed my water bottle
"i need him to bring that back," 
i thought. 

i had resigned myself to dehydration, 

when i found a spare i had forgotten

tucked above the fridge

where is that book? i wonder. 

he was reading it, he had said. 
"i need him to bring that back,"

i thought. 

disappointed at my loss, i turned around

to a stack of unfinished books

laying on my coffee table.

walking out the door, i realized 

i had given him my mask, so he would be safe. 

"i need him to bring that back,"

i thought. 

loading up the car i found  

a spare i had been given, 

sitting on the backseat.

all these things i thought i needed

for a day at the beach. 

i guess i don't.