Every day, some tonic for cheating death

If you dream your mouth rattling
with loose teeth, take a cold shower.

If you dream swimming naked in a pool
as it begins to fill and fill with flotsam,

wake up and scrub the grime from your skin.
In other words: do whatever will keep Death

away for one more day. If it means drinking
a foul-tasting mix of apple cider vinegar

laced with ginger and turmeric, so be it.
If it means forgiving the difference

between someone else’s adventurous, back-
packing life and your circumscribed one

on shore, so be it. Rejoice when the lawn
maintenance guys finally come around

to prune the ragged tree and take away
its overgrowth of limbs. Rejoice

that the moon is visible over the fence,
that a startled rabbit bounds across the path;

that the asphalt you stand on hasn’t melted,
and the air isn’t completely toxic with lies.

 

In response to Via Negativa: All heart.

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