be prepared
was what i learned in girl scouts
but they never prepared me
for anything
besides making boondoggle
& granny squares
though mine were circles
because i can never remember
not to add a crucial turn
of the hook
so my patterns rebelled
even then
but being prepared–
that sense of readiness
expectancy
having enough toilet paper
& milk
before the big snowstorm
that’s preparedness
& not this openness
to everything i have–
tasting the promise
of snow coming
on the tip of my tongue
seeing it in the deep
refracted gray
& almost blue turbulence
of ice swarming in clouds
but no, that
is mindfulness
& not preparedness
because knowing what’s coming
is completely different
from surviving it
***at Dverse today we are writing about preparedness.
Tagged: poetry, Preparedness
