✨ Resolutions

memorize a Basho poem...

Resolutions

Wear nonsensical heels   investigate the suspicion of doubt   spend more time gathering stones   date a baker and learn to taste the difference in flours   impress vermilion upon a lip   emulate spiders:   touch everything first before engaging   ask to be called Jane   collect Janes   paint the bathroom black   memorize a Basho poem that is not about leaving   call your mother only when half-drunk   have an icon of Teresa of Avila beside you when you call   study walls, what they keep in   eat some animal you’ve never seen   draw what that animal tastes like   clean out the deep freeze in the basement   call your mother Elizabeth as if by mistake   attend a Beekeepers of America meeting   read a biography about Amelia Earhart   change the cat’s name to Amelia dream of Icarus   pray beneath low ceilings. Maybe then.

—Anne M. Doe Overstreet

From Delicate Machinery Suspended, T. S. Poetry Press. Copyright © 2011. Used by permission of T. S. Poetry Press. Photo by Kate Laine, Creative Commons, via Unsplash.