The Bitter Celebrates
Mention gateways and mythologies
and I see openings to paths
better left unseen. No choice is
choice,
but preparation leads us astray as well.
Take this bitter leaf.
Call it arugula.
Call it rocket.
Call it colewort or weed.
Dress it with oil and vinegar,
with garlic and lemon.
Add tomato, salt.
Though you try to conceal it,
the bitterness remains.
But back to gates and myths. Do they truly
lead us out, or do we
circle back, returning
to the same endings
again
and again.
Remove the snake, rodents return.
Seal the hole.
Take this leaf.
Voice those words.
Close that door.
“The Bitter Celebrates” first appeared in Amethyst Review in December 2018.
O at the Edges 
I love this Bob. Again and again returning. I could hear words in the back of my head: she knows there’s no success like failure and failures no success at all. It was good seeing you and Stephanie the other night on Zoom
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Sometimes we can’t help but repeat ourselves! It was a fund reading. I only wish that it hadn’t ended so abruptly, that we could have lingered a bit and talked. I suppose that’s why I prefer in-person readings. But then, I don’t know anyone in Indianapolis. Ha.
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As life keeps spinning me around in directions unanticipated, I put less and less stake in any “choice” I make … not at all sure it’s me making the call on much of anything beyond how level the coffee scooper is (I make a cup at a time, drip through cone … which I like fine, but not so sure I CHOSE that mode of making coffee as ACCEPTED it …)
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