sweet & heady

After I sliced a chunk of fingernail off with the box grater,
before I was flooded with the impending sense of doom
that comes with the preparation of a balanced meal,
before The Battle of Clean Up Your Room — sorry to bore you —
I felt tired, but possible.

There are some of these lately, scant teaspoons full,
When they went to school for one day
and I blossomed into a full lilac bush,
drinking up work like it was water,
typing dates and times into the calendar
with wild abandon.

The house was quiet, arranged in a simple vase,
and me, moving through it like spring’s past,
the fruits of my labor
long gone. Now, I drag
the purple eyeshadow crayon
across my eyelids, cover it
with white and blend outward.

I click leave meeting,

finish the Zoom play and forget myself for a moment
smiling, then remember what is waiting in the next room for me.