At “Poems While You Wait,” you commission a poem to be written within fifteen minutes. You give them the inspiration, frolic for a bit, and pick up your poem, post-frolic. I told Mandy that I wanted to do this for realsies one day, and she took it upon herself to break me into the biz by giving me the inspiration for my first “Poems While You Wait” piece:

“Finding my path, in a non-God-y way” – Mandy

 

To find your path

 

Well, the first thing it to avoid all breadcrumbs.

You don’t want to go where you’ve already been, darling!

One way is this:

A spinning globe.

Eyes closed.

A daring exclamation point of a fingertip.

There!

 

Another way is lists:

The arched gingerbread trellis, yes,

But you’d forsake the “approaching mermaids” road sign.

A tightrope balance, to be sure,

To moonbounce down

Into a skydive interrobang.

 

Of course, you could always just begin in medias res,

Right now, you see, you’re already doing it!

Cast a smile at the crowd over your shoulder

And swagger away into an endless ellipsis

 

Flip a three-sided coin for your answer.

And…flip!

You see which one to do?

Were you disappointed?

If you flip long enough,

You will never stretch those wings you’ve been hiding all along.

I know. I know you believe them to be ungainly as lobster claws

And spreading yourself vulnerable open—

Your body does not know this,

has never spoken in anything but its native armor,

fluent in fortification.

But you must, sweet.

Stretch them wide, so you can teach yourself

Their language of flight,

Word by word,

Mile by mile.