on Rochester
where the softening occurs
She said:
It doesn’t deserve your humility.
Having considered place,
I now think of people and things.
Small betrayals, a little disappointment
(things to get, things to get used to),
the roar of gilded lions
and horn-rimmed spectacles,
through which we speak sideways;
plastic & acetate.
I have
spent most of my life
respecting every person I have met,
of this, I am still recovering.
Is there a word for when
crabs change the shape of their
shell from hard to soft,
to molten hard to leathery soft.
I call it the softening.
Do crabs even do this?
The softening is much like realizing mortality
and the weight of a heart filled,
with empty.
I listen to 69 Love Songs
and read Arundhati Roy to commit
to this chrysalis, this shape,
this size
and content.
There is, content,
and however, there is:
discontent.
wimpy af 2019
