If This Is Wednesday
Another poem for C.D Wright
If this is Wednesday -
fold laundry, get passport photo taken,
change the name on the credit card.
If this is Wednesday -
don’t forget therapy at 11:15 am, zoom meeting in the evening,
peanut butter toast, chicken from market, milk, and the pouches A likes.
If this is Wednesday - get nets for the peach tree, play Janis Joplin for A for the first time, remember she says this is a woman singing and she’s waiting for a train.
Kris Kristofferson’s voice making the hair stand up on end.
The day cloudy.
If this is Wednesday - remember that you are living.
The freeways sounding like the ocean.
If this is Wednesday - continue writing.
If this is Wednesday - forgive yourself for the things you did when you didn’t have language, for when you were starving.
If this is Wednesday - remember, no one else knows what it feels like on the inside, that drowning doesn’t look like drowning, the heart turned inward like a dagger.
The wind taking the roof off the greenhouse.
The corn sprouting hair.
If this is Wednesday - do not forget your mother asking you
Why did she leave him?
Sitting at the stoplight on Veteran and Gayley.