In Response to Nadia’s Misdirected Email, I State Exactly What I Am Looking For
Balance. The ability to stand on one foot, on a tightrope, and juggle AR-15s,
ethics and dollar bills, while chanting the U.S. Constitution, in tongues.
Or good health.
Unweighted dreams.
A mechanism for disagreeing without needing to annihilate the opposition.
Doorways without doors, truth without fear.
A simple tulip.
One word to describe that instant between thought and pulled trigger,
intent and wish, the elevated pulse and sense of diminished space and time.
Sanctuary. Regret. Apology. Respect.
A tonic to the bitterness, a foil to the sweet.
Fitted sheets that fold. Uncommon sense.
Love in the abstract. More bacon. Smiles.
A closet that embraces everything you place in it. Everything.
The means of unfiring guns, of reversing wounds to undamaged flesh,
and rounds to their magazines, full and never used.
Self-organizing drawers. Due process.
Mothers who know only tears of joy.
One peaceful day.
Just one.
This first appeared on the blog in July 2016. The poem was a response to an email asking a question intended for someone else: “What exactly are you looking for?”
Reading this “list of answers to a question” my first response someone might make is: who are you, a poet or something? By the way, I love it…..
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Ha! A dilemma, if ever there was…
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I remember the mystery of those sheets. And of course, bacon. (K)
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Ah, those sheets! They still confound me. But there is bacon…
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Another joy ☺️
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Thank you, Yvette!
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Do I get to claim, being the person who misdirected the email, that your words are especially poignant to me? and may I add, “the sweet release from writer’s block, when words jumbled in your mind, order themselves and lay down neatly on the page”?
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Nadia! It’s so good to hear from you. Yes, of course, you may claim these and anything else you desire!
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Thank you, Robert.
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🙂
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A wonderful wish list!
Please stay off the tightrope!
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Sidewalks are dangerous enough for me!
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amen brother!
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Yes!
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I love this every time.
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Thanks, Cate!
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Eloquent and thoughtful. And timely.
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Serendipity is my friend! 🙂
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This is what I’m looking for, too. I hope we find it.
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I find it in bits and pieces…
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