These days,
I hear a lot of voices,
all of which sound
a bit like mine,
saying—hush,
it is not trivial
to let your hair grow
just a little while longer,
to reuse this Ziploc
a thirtieth time,
to give to the spider
a push to keep living
by placing a sheet of notebook paper
beneath its spiny appendages.
I am not alarmed
by the bleak minor key
of these directions, finding it easier
and easier to listen;
there is only one lifetime
and yet, there is
so much of its vastness
to excerpt
and to favor.
