Living Alone by Elizabeth Burk
is easy, no one
telling you what to do
or when to do it
no one questioning why
you’re eating M&Ms
so early in the morning
or peeling a potato
with your fingernails
instead of a knife
no one watching you forget
to screw the top back
on the coffee maker
or put the glass pot under
the spout, spraying coffee
all over the kitchen
no one asking what’s for dinner
as you walk through the door
no one there
to see that living alone
is as easy
as landing on the moon
every night, looking
to claim your place
on an empty planet
with every tentative weightless step you take.
Other poems I enjoyed this week: (Read the full poem in the link)
"Most of these kids have yet to try sushi, haven’t left the country to taste the world, still gravitate toward boxed macaroni and cheese, but someday they might turn on the TV to see you eat some strange food, and witness the uneasy thrill of trying, trying, trying something new."
"I will walk home alone with the deep alone, a disciple of shadows, in praise of the mysteries." -I’m Going to Start Living Like a Mystic by Edward Hirsch
"my mother still mutters whenever she remembers where we lived, reciting then her one life sentence of overlush underbrush, neighbor trash, shoddy farms and fallen fences"
-The Sticks by Todd Boss "It’s begun: The papers print the same stories over and over, and have you checked the obituaries? Already, nobody remembers how their first kiss went."
"I like invisibleness, except in the moon’s strong, broad rays. Some nights, I ask her paleness, Will I be okay?"
Recommended Listening:
Room to Dream by David Lynch, Kristine McKenna Oh Lonesome Me - M Ward Ft. Lucinda Willams Firecracker - Charlie Fink Swept Inside - Future Islands Masterpiece - Big Thief (solo)
Links of the Week: