Operating Instructions for the Day After Your Best Friend Tells You He Supports Genocide by Jané Dowd | One Poem Only
One Poem Only is a daily poetry podcast offering a quiet moment with a single poem—read aloud, without analysis or noise.
Operating Instructions for the Day After Your Best Friend Tells You He Supports Genocide
Jané Dowd
Upon waking: breathe deep.
Savour the shimmer of momentary freedom,
lack of memory and regret.
Surround yourself with three dogs:
sentinels; triumvirate.
Check the curtain crack for signs of dawn.
When the child stirs, relish her aliveness.
As the small ghosts arise in protest,
cup their faces in your bloody hands,
whisper the useless lament:
I am sorry. -And again:
I am sorrow.
When the cat crawls under your crook’d claw:
picture the desert landscape
devoid of trees, of innocence, of hope, of caress.
As you pour the milk, squeeze the honey:
hold your heart on an open palm
leave it be; watch how it stutters
shivers and stalls
look at its redness which is simple
fragile human
the same;
fill it with your grit, ask that sinewy engine
to oyster, to pearl
to return to the cave of your chest
alive, yes, but beating
differently, more soundly and
more true
More from Jané Dowd ↓
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- @janedoe9 on Substack
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