The Feed

~an Ash Wednesday list poem~

You might have a heart attack from all this stress

Or from the endless joy of donuts—

You might get diabetes from anger 

Issues or from your family gene pool—

You might break your leg falling from a tree—

You might eat mostly fudge, well into your 90s—

You might choke (be heimlich-ed) in a fancy restaurant—

You might drown in Lake Michigan.

You might sea-doo among wild dolphins off the coast—

You might floss every day of your life—

You might die in your very own Mama, weeks old.

You might endure a bone marrow transplant—

You might fall in love, you might not—

You might never read Crime & Punishment—
 
You might join a gym. Or take up fly-fishing. You might

Need a new wrinkle cream. What else

can be said? You are dust and to dust you shall return.

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NOTES

*Lent begins today, so I’m putting a pause on my Elijah/Elisha poems for the season, and offering some Lenten poems of mine (Ok, ok, if you’ve been with me awhile you might be thinking that the prophet series IS quite Lenten, and yeah, I’ll give you that).

*If you’re looking for more, three of last years’ poems for Lent can be read here, one of which was recently published in Sehnsucht.

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