Every day wakes with the promise of disaster:
dangling without a net
dropping soap in the shower
spilling coffee in the car
sitting on the stoop
stepping on cracks
walking on frozen slush
waiting for a train
qualifying for unemployment
crossing to the parking lot
coming home to a thousand violations
sweating blood in dreams.
Visceral threats become front page fictions.
Changing channels brings anesthesia, not relief.
Reality seems a malignant terminal plague.
Every day walks with the triumph of habit over hate
choosing between carving a roast or a wrist
serving lemonade or sour grapes
swallowing half here or half gone.
not knowing if fate totes faith or fear
trying to control a tornado of seed and dust
afraid to see if the finger plugging the dike has grown gangrenous.
Time deals and you draw three to an inside straight, but
a good gambler wins with a bad hand; play it.
A thorny tiara may disguise a brass ring; grab it.
Shepherds only call a coy mistress once;
answer the phone before it's disconnected.
Let disease and doom wait in the living room
while you play passion on the ping-pong table; carpe diem.
Every day grows tiny test tube epiphanies
ovulation, conception, gestation, birth.
a loss becomes a gain
a child becomes a parent
a handshake becomes a friend
a kiss becomes a love
Like a slimy looper becomes a monarch
Like the Colorado sculpted a canyon
Like Haleakala crater created Maui
I climb a tree to rescue your kite.