But First

BUT FIRST [A POEM]

* I'm trying my hand at poetry here and there. Be gentle in the reading, as I hope it will start feeling as natural as it once did long ago.

You were made to scale the mountains

But you must write.

You were knit together to undo the hearts of humankind

But you must write today the drudgery and details of a thing.

The holiness of work is upon you,

And so is the kaleidoscope landscape of movement and motion and magic,

The tumult of innumerable ideas in circulation, 

Like the blood in veins,

Like the laundry in its cycle.

But you must write, for it’s the thing that makes you,

And eats you alive,

And puts food in bellies

And fabric to the pattern.

You were made to scale the mountains,

But first you must write the way,

Write it everyday, full with switchbacks and footholds 

That give it dimension and mark up the space

With all the beauty you can muster.