QUICKIE

I was prepared not to write this. Because I’m not a genius. Also, lack of clean laundry, having to pee, CHILDREN.

Also there is no time, and I’m so flattened by the mess of life I left the car trunk open in the dark driveway last night standing through the storm like a kid with a giant mouth that was trying to eat rain. And also I’m supposed to lead a field trip today about a thing I care about (birds) in a place I care about (The Cornell Lab of Ornithology) for first graders—to be clear, because I volunteered— which is all together maybe one of my worst nightmares.

So I was going to skip.

And then I thought a few things, including

—we’re all going to die

—maybe just do what might be good, a little

Namely, today, to read a poem and take it with me like a raindrop to the eyeball: quick and clean, startling reminder of whatever-it-is we need to remember.