One-Way Ticket

 

 

Just then we pass the little thing,

bent and pale, struggling in a metal trough.

This plant has chlorosis, she says.

Iron deficiency, freezing blood, heart attack.

You don’t need a therapist.

You need a cardiologist.

Abandon your post. Leave the desert.

Buy a one-way ticket to Encinitas.

It’s exhausting inhabiting another life.

It’s exhausting not inhabiting your own.

After she leaves, I write down what she meant

given what she said. She said

do not give away your power. Do not

give away your power.