while you're ahead…

This is why I love Instagram and the whole ‘sharing’ that goes on in the social world… yes, I’m aware not all is good, but when it is… it’s brilliant.  I saw this book  on Dana’s feed and what a great discover it was.  Amazing poetry and I don’t think I would have come across it any other way…

The following is the opening poem.

Something you should know (by Clint Smith)

 

is that as a kid, I once worked at a pet store.

I cleaned the cages

of small a animals like turtles, hamsters,

rabbits, and hermit crabs.

I watched the hermit crab continue

to grow, most, shed its skin and scurry across

the bottom of the aquarium to find a new shell.

Which left me afraid for the small creature, 

to run around all exposed that way, to have

to live its entire life requiring something else

to feel safe.  Perhaps that is when I became afraid 

of needing anything beyond myself.  Perhaps

tha is why, even now, I can want to so desperately

to show you all of my skin, but am more afraid 

of meeting you, exposed, in open water.