Lines on a Tuesday

Some people like to
create an inner struggle

says my dad
you children did that

in order to be able to
handle the world.

B is trying to
quit smoking

smoking creates
something bad

in order to
take it away.

I remember sitting alone
on a bus

rising with the jagged
bumps of the road

wishing for something to
go wrong

just to feel how far
from normal

I could be.
I remember leaning

over guardrails
sticking my head out

windows
feeling delivered

into wind, frightened
of falling, loving

the idea
of falling, of failing,

thrilled with
the love that held me

and that it could be
taken away.