Bedside Manners

Bedside Manners

The goal is not to horrify you.
But the goal is not to not horrify you.

When you wake up, how much
of the previous day have you forgotten,

how much from all your years
sticks. If we can remember something,

we can keep it, that is what we
think. The baking aisle in the supermarket,

between the boxes of cake mix
and bagged chocolate chips and shakers

of rainbow sprinkles. Breathe
that in, cardboard and powdery sweetness.

A bowl and wooden spoon rise
within you, then quickly recede, Nessie

and then flat lake water. I dare
you, try to keep what the sugar summoned.

I don’t mean to be mean. Try,
how about what the word evergreen does

to you, how sure you are that
beneath its satin there is a lesson for you.

Think of who you can mean,
how it made you shiver when the new boy

called you her, see how this
happens to us both, beside one another.