This is How

By Paul Michelsen

Image/ Clarissa Michelsen

This is how you write a poem
You make the hieroglyphics 
do a little dance, then
let them make sweet love

How you remember 
your loved ones
The living and the dead

This is how you breathe more fully
until you breathe no more
Making sure the everything-in-between
is something to remember

How you eat without 
forgetting how good it is 
to be eating

This is how you drink without 
forgetting how good it is 
not to be drowning

How you vote your conscience
knowing everything changes no matter 
what you say or do or don’t 

This is how you try though you know
it might be futile

Futile gestures are sometimes 
the most beautiful

Paul Michelsen’s work can be found in the books Sandstone & Silver: An anthology of Nevada poets (Zeitgeist Press, 2019) and Next Line, Please: Prompts to Inspire Poets and Writers, edited by David Lehman, with Angela Ball (Cornell University Press, 2018). He has one beautiful wife, two wonderful children, an active third eye, a four-legged Labradoodle, and often feels like a fifth wheel. And, speaking of the Wheel, he would like to buy a vowel.