throw the stuff in the bag.
clothes.
jars and bags
of food.
containers of food.
pack up the bags.
take them from
and to.
you don’t have to be crazy
about it.
you don’t have to
love it.
you can just be
crazy.
you can just
love.
you can just be.
run the vacuum sweeper
over the floors.
scrub the counters.
wash the dishes.
leave them to dry
in the humid air.
the rain outside
is persistent.
more of a
pervasive spray
than a rain.
droplets fat and precocious,
no,
just a white noise
of water.
step outside
and
instantly wet.
you can admire the clouds
but there is no need
today
to look up to them;
you step directly into them.
you don’t have to love
it.
you don’t have to be
crazy
about it.
you can just be.
it is a choice,
after all.
it might not feel
like a choice
but still
it is a choice.
the bags
and the mildew.
the pet hair on your socks
from pets that are not yours,
pets who don’t even so much want
to be pet.
not by you,
anyway.
it isn’t that they
don’t like you,
they are just afraid of you.
no you’ve not done anything
specific
to earn their fear.
it’s just the general fear
that we all have.
the general fear
that makes some
tight and rigid,
makes some
loose and ghostly.
you were so paralyzed by fear
that you spent an entire lifetime
laughing at jokes
you did not think were funny,
doing jobs
you did not at all want to do.
but you’ve gotten over that
now.
you don’t have to love
it.
you don’t have to be crazy
about it.
you can just be.
zakschafer.com 