Sometimes it’s messier than a spreadsheet
Longer than a soundbite
More difficult to swallow than a can of gummy worms
Sometimes it’s uglier than a picture
Darker than a shadow
Deeper than the deepest V-neck
and far hairier
Sometimes it’s nothing but awkward
With words that don't work
and time to kill
Sometimes situations are hard to reckon
And us humans
with our chicken-scratch halos
and tattered suitcases
and confusing dreams
and confined realities
plow ahead into the fresh breath of the unknown
with affirmations written on the backs of old tax returns
because we must