Open-Eyed

She laughs.
The fun is never over
and never fully sober

and everything’s a blur.


She cries.
She used to be a Christian.
She wants to find a boyfriend.
She wants to find a cure.

No poetic wording,

no alliteration,

no well-written ballad,

no intoxication,

no destructive pattern,

a fashionable outfit,

the popular opinion

can save you from yourself.

Be open-eyed and broken wide.
It’s painful letting go.
You have to change to grow.

If you don’t change, you become a living fossil,

an ancient ecosystem, a tiny pond, preserved.
Evolve. Headed for perfection

while natural selection is thinning out the herd.

Now everybody move!
Everybody move to this new drum beat.
Everybody move to this new city.
Anything to keep from being still.
Anything to keep it all in motion.
Trying to forget that painful person.
Anything to keep the rhythm flowing.
Everybody move! Everybody move! Everybody!