1312: Practice | Kellam Ayres
"Practice"
Kellam Ayres
You must make this mistake once-
pour boiling liquid into a blender, then pulse it.
Watch the steam blow the lid straight off.
When you see your burned hands, you’ll scream.
Other mistakes you repeat, finding yourself
in a familiar place, but worn out, like pigeons
circling a roof, the flock growing bigger,
then smaller. It will be this way with love.
Your neighbor plays something on the accordion,
starting and stopping before seeing it through,
but it’s not what you expected. It’s not even
about getting it right. You think it’s about
protecting yourself, and eventually you will-
not by learning how to love, but how to do so less often.
On this day in...
2010: "What Do You Know About Love" by John Akpata and "Moonchild" by Lucille Clifton
2009: "The Favorite" by Alison Townsend
2008: Weekend, no poem
2007: "How Poems Are Made/A Discredited View" by Alice Walker
Tell me, what else should I have done?/Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Kellam Ayres
You must make this mistake once-
pour boiling liquid into a blender, then pulse it.
Watch the steam blow the lid straight off.
When you see your burned hands, you’ll scream.
Other mistakes you repeat, finding yourself
in a familiar place, but worn out, like pigeons
circling a roof, the flock growing bigger,
then smaller. It will be this way with love.
Your neighbor plays something on the accordion,
starting and stopping before seeing it through,
but it’s not what you expected. It’s not even
about getting it right. You think it’s about
protecting yourself, and eventually you will-
not by learning how to love, but how to do so less often.
On this day in...
2010: "What Do You Know About Love" by John Akpata and "Moonchild" by Lucille Clifton
2009: "The Favorite" by Alison Townsend
2008: Weekend, no poem
2007: "How Poems Are Made/A Discredited View" by Alice Walker
Tell me, what else should I have done?/Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?