No I Will Not Listicle
We must stop
all this clamor,
this clutter
of virtual advice.
1,2,3,4,
This is how you do it…
bullet points.
We may die from it.
Who are we,
I mean really?
So many experts?
Pardon me
if I pause here,
skeptical.
Writers, good ones,
have voices.
Should they use these
hallowed things
always to advise?
To opine,
yes. Please.
We cannot help ourselves,
but this frantic race
to tell each other how.
Please, please,
let it stop.
For the sake of all that is holy
please
Shut Up.
There is nothing
like the list
to reduce it all,
this fabulous thing,
to a trite
going through
of the motions.
How irreverent
to parse out
the radical dynamic
experience of being alive
as if we were cakes…
to be baked
by recipe, just so.
How is it
There is such a plethora?
As though we were afraid
of the vast unknown,
of not knowing,
of radical guessing,
of wondering.
As though we believe the
way we might live
ideally would be safely.
How sad to sum it up
so finitely,
so literally
with such
a contrived
expertise.
Enough.
Tell me how you,
yes you,
not me…
tell us how you
live.
What sense you make of it.
Then,
I am all ears.
Art: Pablo Picasso | Portrait of Marie Therese Walter