166)

The bottom line is this:
always be you
or at risk of upsetting the grammar gods,
never not be you
no matter what
you should
always be yourself.

163)

I say this to you now
and I will say this again
only this time
I am going to say this
in different parts
and in different ways
to get my point across.

162)

Let’s call this a toast
or call this something
or let me call this nothing else
but a reflection of my respect.
or let’s call it what it is
so we can leave it at that
and get on with it.

I raise my glass to those
or to them who remain unafraid
and I raise my glass to those
who remain untested
and to them, I say
may the tests from life be brief
but impactful.

159)

You need the rain,
sometimes,
because sometimes,
you need a day
to sit back
and let the gray sky
do its trick.

156)

I have a question,
and the question is simple.
Is it naive to be optimistic,
or is it foolish to be hopeful
in hopeless times?

I wonder . . .

152)

We need to move
and at the same time
we need to pay attention
to the direction,
as in where do we want to go?
How do we want to get there?

Which way do we want to head first,
when do we want to start,
and what are we willing to do
to get where we want to be?

148)

I go back to that saying
which I agree with
and to which I have heard
this often enough that I laugh
because I often forget,
and in my forgetfulness,
I argue with the irrationalities
which we both face
on a frequent basis.

The saying goes,
never in the history
of calming down
has anybody ever calmed down
simply by being told
to calm down.

144)

The way I see it is –
you have to lose yourself
in something, otherwise,
you can lose yourself
to everything,
if you know what I mean.

I remember back
when my friend Mitch
once told me,
don’t play that movie out
in your head—and
he was right.

141)

There is something about the sting of purity,
like how the cleaner stings the cut
or like when Mom wipes the cotton
across a scraped knee,
and it burns . . .
or like, when they wiped the cut
I got the first time I had to get stitches –
and I remember, even when I was younger
about how someone told me
sometimes,
it has to hurt, they said
if it’s to heal.

140)

Just one, for today.
But I need this one.
I need to be reminded
that there is more to me
than I see,
and so
I need to understand
that I am not the sum of my fears
or the limitations of a so-called sickness
nor am I less or more
simply because of my challenges
with social, economical,
and educational snobbery.

And so –