If You Give It a Chance

The tangled wire

The story of this poem: I love this one. There’s a lot of stuff in the news right now that’s hard to hear about and harder to accept. The day I wrote this, I needed a moment away from the onslaught to get my smile back.

IF YOU GIVE IT A CHANCE

Today, I danced.
I put on anthems of eighteen:
Shook my ass,
Fell onto my bed,
Exhausted from reliving dreams.

Today, I danced.
The strangest thoughts between my eyes:
“There’s a genocide.
There’s a king we all should fear.
He craves the peace prize,
Creates a department of war.
How can you dance when your parents have died,
When they left no veil between you and the calm reaper at night?”

After I danced,
Young layers flung free by the shimmy rose up true:
“Just go get fucked.
It’s a fact that everything’s on fire,
But I can take a minute to wring my body loose
Before I dive back into the tangled wire.”

It only works if you give it a chance,
So today,
I fucking danced.